The former Astro who tipped off The Athletic that Houston was illegally using cameras to steal signs during their 2017 World Series championship season claims he has received death threats.
Mike Fiers, who was a member of the title-winning team but left Houston as a free agent and now pitches for the Oakland Athletics, isn’t concerned for his life but told the San Francisco Chronicle it had been threatened.
“Whatever, I don’t care. I’ve dealt with a lot of death threats before,” Fiers said. “It’s just another thing on my plate. If I’m worried about any retaliation, I’m not going to be ready for the season.”
Earlier in the week, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred pledged that MLB would protect the sign-stealing whistleblower. “We will take every possible step to protect Mike Fiers wherever he’s playing, whether it’s in Houston or somewhere else,” he said.
When he was asked about Fiers, former Red Sox slugger David Ortiz stopped well short of saying the right-hander’s life should be in danger. But, Big Papi did have somewhat of a “snitches get stitches” attitude about Fiers going public about what the Astros had been up to in 2017.
Ortiz said Fiers was “looking like a snitch” for going public about the team’s cheating scandal only after he had left Houston and signed with a new team.
“Oh, after you make your money, after you get your ring, you decide to talk about it?” Ortiz said, according to The Associated Press. “Why didn’t you talk about it during the season when it was going on? Why didn’t you say, ‘I don’t want to be part of it?’ So you’re looking like a snitch. Why do you have to talk about it after? That’s my problem. Why did nobody say anything while it was going on?”
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