Bryce Harper is the latest baseball player to question whether or not New York Yankees star Aaron Judge was robbed of the AL MVP in 2017.
The Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal is the story that won’t go away for Major League Baseball. Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper was asked about the situation and he feels that there are plenty of ballplayers who were hurt by the rampant cheating.
He specifically mentions New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, who finished second in American League MVP voting behind Houston’s Jose Altuve in 2017.
Aaron Judge finished runner-up to Jose Altuve for the MVP in 2017
Bryce Harper had some thoughts on that and more with the Astros' sign stealing pic.twitter.com/i8N7gpfbZI
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) February 17, 2020
“Of course, the guys like [David] Robertson getting shelled in [Houston] in ’17, that’s tough as well,” Harper said when asked about who he feels was wronged by the scandal. “That’s kind of World Series or not, for those guys. And guys like Aaron Judge, going through in ’17, absolutely killing it that year. He gets beat out by a great player in Altuve.
“It’s just guys like that, that really miss out on things. Or a guy that comes up for his first start and they have his signs and he gets absolutely shelled for seven or eight. They send him back down and they never come back to the big leagues. Those are just the guys I feel for.”
Harper is hardly the first non-Yankee to rush to Judge’s defense for the 2017 season. Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Cody Bellinger also spoke out, going as far as to say that Altuve “stole” the MVP from Judge.
Harper isn’t quite as animated as Bellinger in his defense of his fellow outfielder, but it’s clear that the vast majority of ballplayers are livid with the Astros. It also doesn’t help that Houston’s PR strategy to deal with the fallout of the scandal has been a complete nightmare and commissioner Rob Manfred continues to stick his foot in his mouth whenever he talks.
Baseball is in a weird place right now.