Reporter: “You used the trash can banging?”
Carlos Correa: “Yes I used the trash can. And I’m here like a man to tell you I used it. Because my credibility right here; this is what I live for. Every time I speak I want you guys to believe me, and when I tell you, yes, I did. A lot of players used it and that’s why we’re going through this right now, because of what happened in 2017."
Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa finally admitted on camera that he indeed used the team’s infamous trash can banging system to gain an advantage at the plate during the 2017 season.
Former Astros pitcher, Mike Fiers, was the first person to blow the whistle on the illicit sign-stealing scandal that became the biggest form of cheating in baseball history.
Fiers, who pitched for the team from 2015-2017, said the team had a TV monitor around the home dugout at Minute Maid Park that had a clear and magnified view of the opponents’ catcher that was shot from a discrete center field camera.
Astros staff would then watch the rigged up monitor in the tunnel while Houston players were batting, to see where the opposing catcher was setting up and what fingers he was throwing down. They would then relay to the Astros batter up at the plate which pitch was likely coming next by literally banging on trash cans, whistling, or hitting the ceiling of the dugout to signal if it was an off-speed pitch or a fastball.
Correa has been by far the most vocal Astros player this month, as the team continues to take a massive amount of heat by an outraged baseball community, that not only spans fans and pundits, but from some of the game’s players too.
Correa recently told reigning NL MVP Cody Bellinger to ‘shut the f*ck up’, after Bellinger made comments belittling the legitimate of Houston’s 2017 World Series.
Correa has been in the league for five seasons, making the the All-Star game just once -- which just so happened to be 2017 -- the same year the team was proven to have used their clandestine cheating system.
Correa had by far his best season that year, hitting a career high .317 (.277 for his career) with a career-high in home runs (24), on-base (.391), and OPS (.941).