Yankees' Aaron Judge says Astros should be stripped of 2017 title

TAMPA, Fla. — New York Yankees star Aaron Judge — who did not hit or throw during the team’s first full squad workout on Tuesday because of what the team said was a minor right shoulder issue — feels the Houston Astros should be stripped of their 2017 World Series championship.

“You cheated, and you didn’t earn it,” Judge said after the Yankees’ first full-squad workout. “That’s how I feel. It wasn’t earned. It wasn’t earned the way of playing the game right and fighting to the end and knowing that we’re competing, we’re competitors. The biggest thing about competition is laying it all out on the line, and whoever is the better player, better person comes out on top. To know that another team had an advantage that, nothing you can really guard against, I just don’t feel like that’s earned.”

MLB concluded the Astros used a video camera to steal catcher’s signs in 2017, including during the postseason, and in ’18. Manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were suspended for one season each, then were fired by the team. Houston was fined $5 million and stripped of its next two first- and second-round draft picks.

“It affected a lot of games, no matter what anybody says,” Judge said. “It affected the game big time. People lost jobs, people lost money, people lost a lot of things important to them.”

No players were punished by MLB.

“I wasn’t a fan of the punishment, I thought that was a little weak for a player-driven scheme,” Judge said, “that no players involved got any punishments.”

Houston beat the Yankees in a seven-game AL Championship Series in 2017, winning all four home games, and defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in a seven-game World Series.

“To hear that you got cheated out of that opportunity, that’s tough to kind of let go,” Judge said.

Judge finished second to the Astros’ Jose Altuve in that year’s voting for AL MVP.

Judge backed the position of Chicago Cubs pitcher Yu Darvish, who felt the penalties imposed by commissioner Rob Manfred were insufficient.

“I think Darvish was the one that said, if you’re playing in the Olympics and win a gold medal and find that you cheated, you don’t get to keep that medal,” Judge said.

He agreed with teammate Gleyber Torres, who said Monday that he thought the Astros also broke rules in 2019 when the Yankees lost the AL Championship Series in six games.

“To think that they cheated and won it all in ’17, to think that they just clear-cut stopped ’19 or ’18, it’s tough for me to say that,” Judge said. “But we’ll never really now, to be honest.”

Manfred said Sunday he wasn’t 100% sure the Astros didn’t violate rules in 2019, but it was his best judgment that they didn’t.

Judge said the whole Yankees team is “driven” this year after the Astros scandal and falling just short of a pennant twice in three years.

“There’s a different level of focus,” Judge said. “These boys are ready. We got to go out there and finish it this year.”