The Loop

Two videos seem to confirm José Altuve was hiding something underneath his jersey during ALCS

If you were already tired of hearing about the MLB's sign-stealing scandal, you might want to find a hole, crawl in it and not come out for the next few days. It's about to get much, much worse.

Before the news of Carlos Beltran stepping down even had a chance to get cold, Beltran's niece, or someone everyone has assumed is Beltran's niece, sent out two tweets about José Altuve and Alex Bregman, two of the Houston Astros' biggest stars. According to the mystery tweeter, both Bregman and Altuve had devices underneath their jerseys that buzzed, and the devices were controlled by a "hallway video guy":

In her second tweet, you'll see she refers to Altuve not wanting his jersey ripped off after "Chapman gave up homer." She is of course talking about Altuve's walk-off, ALCS-clinching homer off New York Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman in Game 6 that sent the Astros to the World Series. Immediately, Twitter investigators uncovered what he/she was talking about. In one video, you'll see Altuve round third base and signal to his teammates not to rip off his jersey during the celebration:

Hey, maybe he just wanted the jersey to remain in good condition. After all, he did just hit one of the biggest homers of his career in it.

Ken Rosenthal, who was one of the reporters who broke the entire sign-stealing story, was on hand that night in Houston as an on-field reporter for FOX. He noticed Altuve's plea to his teammates to not rip his jersey, and made sure to ask him about it during the postgame interview. Does this sound like an innocent man?

Nothing to see here. He's just a little shy.

This is not the first time this buzzer rumor has made the rounds. After the World Series had concluded, pictures and video of Astros catcher Robinson Chirinos sporting some sort of device on his thumb emerged:

For anyone wondering if Beltran's niece (or someone posing as Beltran's niece) is a credible source, that account also tweeted about Beltran's hiring four days before it was announced, and tweeted on Wednesday about Beltran stepping down a day before it happened. Whoever it is—his niece, him, a former player, someone else—they've got a lot of inside info and they're not afraid to share it. Let's hope whoever it is keeps it coming.