Zack Greinke has avoided much of the media frenzy that began when the Houston Astros first reported to spring training earlier this month, but the star pitcher insists his delayed arrival has nothing to do with the fallout from the sign-stealing scandal.
Greinke, who is entering his 16th MLB season, showed up in West Palm Beach on Saturday — 10 days after pitchers and catchers reported to Astros camp. When asked why he didn’t get there sooner, the 36-year-old said he had no idea in years past that his presence was not mandatory. Had he known, he would have shown up 10 days later every offseason.
Zack Greinke reported today and said today is final day players can report.
"I just found out we don’t have to come these other days. If I would have known that 15 years ago, I wouldn’t have been coming for a while now," he said.— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) February 22, 2020
While that may sound hard to believe given all that has been going on with the Astros, those who know Greinke would tell you he’s probably being truthful. We’ve seen plenty of examples in the past of Greinke just saying whatever comes to his mind, so his reason for not showing up to spring training sooner is probably legitimate.
Even if Greinke wasn’t avoiding questions about the cheating scandal, the timing worked out for him. The sign-stealing talk is going to be around all season, and the Astros even got booed at home in their spring training opener. However, Greinke got to avoid the team’s charade of an apology press conference and all that went along with it.
