After widespread stories about the Houston Astros’ electronic sign stealing operation dominated the news this week, it seems plenty of people are looking for evidence that other teams may have been up to shady business as well.
One of the teams named as potentially operating such an operation was the Milwaukee Brewers. This allegation seemingly started with St. Louis Cardinals beat writer Jeff Jones, who offered no evidence aside from stating that “multiple players” identified Milwaukee as an “egregious” offender. What followed was a Twitter thread from Bleacher Nation, a pro-Chicago Cubs site that insinuated that Christian Yelich was looking to the Brewers’ bullpen in one instance to get some sort of signal while facing Cubs pitcher Yu Darvish.
Here’s a look at that video.
Here's the video – it happens very quickly, and just before Yu steps off. Yelich is locked on Darvish, eyes flick toward left center, then back to Darvish. Yu steps off. pic.twitter.com/hqOSvGMGEh
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) November 15, 2019
Darvish took note of the thread, stating that he had, in fact, stepped off the rubber in that instance because he saw Yelich’s eyes move. However, Darvish added in a follow-up tweet that his actions did not indicate there was any evidence that the Brewers were stealing signs.
I'm not sure what is he trying to do.
But to be clear his eyes move first.
That's why I step off.— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) November 15, 2019
But that's not mean Brewers stealing signs.
— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) November 15, 2019
The first tweet got the attention of Yelich, who aggressively replied to Darvish on Twitter, defending himself.
Be better than this. Nobody needs help facing you https://t.co/DlUDwjJn4X
— Christian Yelich (@ChristianYelich) November 15, 2019
That’s quite the response. And Yelich’s remark that “nobody needs help facing you” seems to imply that he doesn’t think much of Darvish’s ability to get people out. Yelich is obviously going to take offense at the implication that he’s been cheating, but the defensiveness and aggressiveness of the response is somewhat surprising. Darvish made no direct allegation that Yelich or anyone else was stealing signs, though perhaps Yelich disliked that Darvish was amplifying such claims by merely acknowledging and responding to them.
Darvish has been one of the opponents whose narrative is central to the Astros’ scandal, given he has raised questions regarding what was going on in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series. Care should be exercised in alleging wrongdoing by any opponent — charges of electronic sign-stealing are serious. Despite this, Yelich’s response still seems a little bit over-the-top.
