ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ Rays pitcher Charlie Morton was aware of the illegal sign-stealing by his then Astros teammates and said Saturday "I regret not doing more to stop it."
Talking with Tampa Bay media about the scandal for the first time, Morton said the championship the Astros won in 2017 has been impacted.
"I think the perception of that World Series was negatively affected, at minimum," Morton said.
Morton was new to the Astros in 2017, and not the established star he is now, which may have impacted what he could do or say about the scheme.
"I was aware of the banging. You could hear the banging being in the dugout you could hear it. I don't know when it dawned on me, but you knew it was going on," Morton said.
"Personally, I regret not doing more to stop it. I don't know what that would have entailed. I think the actions would have been somewhat extreme to stop it. That's a hypothetical."
Morton also said:
"I certainly have thought about it a lot because it negatively impacted the game, and people's perception of the game, the fans, opposing players. And that doesn't sit well with me. ... Where I was at the time, I don't know where I was, because what's wrong is wrong. And I'll never be absolved of that."
Morton said he couldn't say if players should have been punished because there were different levels of involvement, and there probably couldn't be a uniform level of discipline.
He said the commissioner's office did a "thorough" investigation and that he was not interviewed. He acknowledged there was something of a clubhouse code but didn't want to talk much about why former Astro Mike Fiers came out publicly divulging details.
Morton was with the Astros in 2018 and said that by the time he returned to Houston as a visitor for the first time with the Rays in August of 2019 he was confident the cheating had stopped.
As to how he will view his former Astros teammates knowing they were caught cheating, Morton sounded forgiving.
"From a personal standpoint, good people make mistakes. It's as simple as that," he said. "I really don't have anything else to say about it. I think mistakes were made and everybody is just trying to move on. I think it is one of those things where I know those guys, I went through a lot with those guys, so I feel like I have a little different perspective on who they are as opposed to someone that is just reading that the Astros cheated in 2017."
Morton said he fully understood why people looked differently at the Astros' accomplishments in 2017.
"Certainly the public perception of that win has changed, and my peers, too," he said. "People have weighed in on this. That's the reality of it. There are moments during the World Series that will always be special to me, that won't be quote unquote, tainted. But certainly that's justified, that's a justified perception to have, and what people have expressed."
The Astros were found guilty, in a stinging report from a Major League Baseball investigation, of cheating by using video monitors to steal signs from opposing pitchers and relay them to their hitters.
The team was fined $5 million, had draft picks taken away and general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch suspended for a year _ and then fired by owner Jim Crane. But no players were disciplined, as they were given immunity for their testimony.
Other players around the league, including Rays pitchers Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell, said the participating players should have been disciplined. There also have been complaints about the lack of contrition by the Astros players, though there may be something planned for this week when spring training camp opens in West Palm Beach.
Morton pitched for the Astros in 2017 and 2018, enjoying a career renaissance, then signed with the Rays and had another successful 2019 season.
