That Snake In The Grass Marwin Gonzales Just Apologized For Stealing Signs On The Astros

This is kinda hilarious to me.  Obviously Gonzalez isn't sorry for stealing signs, he's sorry he got caught stealing signs.  Obviously that goes without say, because the dude successfully snaked his way to a World Series title and big pay day with the Twins, which we'll get to in a moment.  And when I say snaked it, he is pretty much the most guilty player of all guilty players with respect to the Astros sign stealing scandal:

Dude loved hearing bang bang more than Dog Walk listeners.  But Gonzalez shouldn't be apologizing to the fans of baseball, he should be apologizing to the Minnesota twins first and foremost.  Here are his stats from 2016-17 combined:

and then 2019 with the Twins, after signing a 2 year, $21MM deal:

Now, players that don't cheat are capable of having down years.  Happens regularly.  But there is a ton of evidence that suggests that Marwin Gonzales was realllllly benefiting from the sign stealing.  If he were a league average player with say a 95-100 wRC+ and limited power that fits the mold of a utility player would the Twins have offered him $21MM?  FUCK no they wouldn't.  Lucky him though.  

But I've asked myself this question since the whole story broke.  What do you do if you're the Twins here?  Can they file a grievance with the league of some sorts?  I realize that opens up a whole new can of worms, and it's not like $21MM is a ton of money to an MLB team, but if I'm Twins' owner Jim Pohlad or FO execs Rob Antony/Thad Levine and I'm cutting Gonzalez a sizable check each month known he cheated his way to getting that payday, I'm fucking pissed.  Doesn't matter that they're a small market team, either.  $21MM could have been allocated to a better starting pitcher for them.

And this doesn't even go into the contrary, which is former players suing the Astros for ending their careers and costing them money.  Hubbs blogged about it yesterday, but Mike Bolsinger filed a suit against the Astros this week saying they are responsible for cutting his career short:

The ripple effect this whole saga has created is only going to get bigger and bigger, too.  Say courts side with Bolsinger and the Astros are forced to pay him.  Then what?  And what if the Twins think they're owed money from Gonzalez?  It's going to be really shitty for a really long time.  Baseball always has been and always will be its own worst enemy.

Thank god we maybe have a new playoff system coming though:

PS - don't compare this to steroids.  It's not a direct correlation.  Any pitcher on earth will tell you they'd rather face a hitter juiced out of his skull than someone who knows a pitch and it's location.  That's just a fact.  Sign stealing is inarguably worse.