Brian Cashman Still Bitter About Astros' 2017 Sign-Stealing Scandal

Though Brian Cashman reminds us every six months that he's over the Astros 2017 sign-stealing scandal, we've never bought it. Turns out, we were right. The Yankees GM is now saying the Astros threw the Yankees off their destiny for a World Series berth, and he remembers it all too well.

"The only thing that stopped us was something that was so illegal and horrific. So I get offended when I start hearing we haven't been to the World Series since '09," Cashman said in an interview with The Athletic. "Because I'm like, 'Well, I think we actually did it the right way...the only thing that derailed us was a cheating circumstance that threw us off.'"

Perhaps this is why the Yankees didn't show much aggressiveness this offseason. They signed 36-year-old Josh Donaldson rather than make more explosive moves like Carlos Correa or Freddie Freeman. If Cashman believe his team clinched a hypothetical pennant five years ago, it makes sense that he doesn't feel desperate right now.

But New York Yankees fans do.

Still, Cashman sounds like a mediocre former big league pitcher trying to convince us that Barry Bonds' steroid use ruined his career.

No, the Yankees didn't win the 2017 pennant, based on simple math. The Yankees scored four runs in three late-series games, which isn't a winning formula in October. Sign-stealing did not get in the way of their ice cold offense. As a matter of fact, that 2017 Yankees squad was a Cinderella story to begin with. They were nicknamed the "Baby Bombers" because that core group was expected to hit their stride in the coming years, not that year. No one predicted that roster was ready to hoist a World Series banner, so to pretend the cheating did them in is embarrassing, to say the least.

Yet here Brian Cashman stands delivering excuses as to why he's been a colossal failure as GM of the Yankees this past decade. God forbid this scandal went down in 2002, George Steinbrenner would've brought the hammer down to make sure the '03 team couldn't be matched. There's no fire in that front office anymore, and it's sad to see.

Unless, of course, you're a fan of literally any other organization -- then this is totally hilarious. Looks like the big, bad Yankees are poised for yet another Wild Card run that leads to an early exit. But in their minds, they actually made the World Series five years ago, and complete ding-a-lings in the media cover their tracks.