"No known evidence that the Dodgers were doing something as flagrant" - MLB writer claims Los Angeles Dodgers' cheating pales in comparison to Astros'
Recent reports suggest that the Los Angeles Dodgers may have been cheating during their runs to the 2017 and 2018 World Series, both of which came up empty.
The Houston Astros were confirmed to be cheating, partly by a beat reporter who has come out with a book detailing everything. Evan Drellich sat down with The Athletic to discuss these new allegations, part of which stems from sections of his book:
“On the sign-stealing front, the Astros and Dodgers were suspicious of one another. One member of the Dodgers said during the 2017 season, they indeed did use a baserunner scheme, determining sign sequences with the help of their video room, an analog to what the Red Sox and Yankees had done in recent years, and to what the Astros were doing on the road. "
This wasn't an uncommon form of cheating, but the Astros took it to an even more egregious level. The Dodgers reportedly didn't do the same:
"Another member of the Dodgers said that everyone was doing that until MLB cracked down on it in 2018. But there is no known evidence that the Dodgers were doing something as flagrant as the Astros’ trash-can system.”
The Los Angeles Dodgers may have been cheating, but they certainly weren't doing what the Astros were.
Why do the Red Sox think the Los Angeles Dodgers cheated?
Regardless of whether it was true or not, some Red Sox players believe the Los Angeles Dodgers tried to cheat as well. Drellich said this isn't really valid:
"Now, beyond that information coming from the inside, the book also contains some allegations coming from the outside. One instance is a Red Sox source saying, and I’m paraphrasing: 'I, a Red Sox person, think the Dodgers were cheating in 2018, and here’s an anecdote supporting why I think that.'"
He went on to explain that the only reason he even included the anecdote in the book was so that readers could understand the time period. In baseball, during that time, everyone was on edge about cheating.
Once the Astros' scandal went public, everyone thought everyone else was cheating, too. They may have been lightly cheating, but it doesn't appear there's evidence of anyone but the Astros doing it with such magnitude.