Hinch: Astros opened door for World Series title to be questioned

Former Houston Astros manager AJ Hinch admitted Thursday that the club allowed the legitimacy of their 2017 World Series title to be questioned after being caught for illegally stealing signs.

Hinch, who was fired in mid-January after Major League Baseball suspended him for one year, broke his silence on the matter in an interview that will air Friday.

"I think everyone's going to have to draw their own conclusions," Hinch said in an excerpt on MLB Network. "I hope over time and the demonstration with the talents of this team, the players, the careers that are being had - we have some of the best players in the entire sport all together on the same team. I hope over time, it's proven that it wasn't, but I understand the question. It's a fair question and people are going to have to draw their own conclusions.

"Unfortunately, we opened that door as a group and that question may never be answered. We may never know (if the World Series title is tainted). We're going to have to live and move forward and be better in the sport, but unfortunately, no one can really answer that question. I can't pinpoint what advantages or what happened or what exactly would have happened otherwise, but we did it to ourselves."

The league's investigation revealed Hinch found the sign-stealing tactic "wrong and distracting" and broke a monitor that was being used to implement the ploy twice, according to Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle.

Then-general manager Jeff Luhnow was also suspended and subsequently fired for his part in the scandal. Further, Houston was fined $5 million and lost its first- and second-round draft picks in the next two drafts.

However, the players were not punished in exchange for sharing truthful testimonies with investigators.

"We have the right to discipline players right now," commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday, according to Rome. "I'm absolutely convinced of that fact. We made a decision in the Houston investigation that in order for us to get the facts that we needed, somebody had to get immunity."