Evan Gattis was a DH and backup catcher for the 2017 Houston Astros. Recently he raised eyebrows -- and made people question his ethical priorities -- when he tweeted out a photo of sign-stealing whistleblower Mike Fiers with the words “snitches get stitches” underneath it.
It would seem, however, that that tweet did not reflect his true feelings about the Astros’ conduct or, for that matter, about Fiers blowing the whistle. That comes through loud and clear during his appearance on The Athletic’s Atlanta Braves-themed “755 Is Real” podcast, this week, in which he talked about the sign-stealing scandal.
Gattis on the sign-stealing:“What we did was wrong, don’t get it twisted. It was wrong for the nature of competition, not even just baseball. We obviously cheated baseball . . . I’m not asking for sympathy, or anything like that. If our punishment is being hated by everybody forever, just like, whatever. I don’t know what should be done, but something had to fu**ing be done. I do agree with that, big-time. I do think it’s good for baseball that we’re cleaning it up.
“I still to this day — I’ve thought about it a fu**ing s**t ton — and I still don’t know how to feel. I know I’ll get ripped by somebody like, ‘That’s not an apology,’ and if I did apologize it still wouldn’t be good enough. Yeah, no s**t it’s not gonna be good enough. I understand that it’s not fu**ing good enough to say sorry. I get it.”
He had specific words about Fiers blowing the whistle too:
“With Fiers, he had something to say, dude. It probably started out with him saying exactly what he said — some of these guys coming into the league, they don’t fu**ing know yet that this s**t goes on. And I respect that. And he had something to say. So he had to fu**ing say it. And then we had to get punished. Because if not, then what? It’ll get even more out of control.”
It’s safe to say that Gattis, who recently announced that his playing days are over, has now made the most straightforward statement of any 2017 Astro on the matter to date.
