Red Sox slugger J.D. Martinez revealed an interesting tidbit Thursday, telling
WEEI’s “Ordway, Merloni and Fauria” that
whistleblower Mike Fiers first told him about the
Astros’ cheating methods before Boston played Houston in the 2018
Martinez said former Sox manager Alex Cora --
who was implicated as a key player in Houston’s scheme -- never brought any of those methods to Boston. So when Martinez was alerted by Fiers -- his former teammate at Nova Southeastern University and a close friend -- he was shocked.
“You can put me on any lie detector. You can put me on anything,”
Martinez told OMF. "Alex Cora never influenced us and never told us about that thing. The only way I ever found out was in the playoffs was when Fiers, who is a really good friend of mine, reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, make sure you’re doing this because this, because this is what these guys are doing in the playoffs.’ I was like, ‘What? How is this a thing?’ And then I mentioned it to (Cora) and he told kind of me about the whole system and everything like that. That was kind of why it was so crazy. (Cora) was so relaxed going into those playoff games because he knew and we were ready for it.”