Brewers: Erik Kratz Accuses Rockies Of Sign-Stealing In 2018 NLDS

Amidst all the excitement and confusion of the Willy Adames trade, a new bombshell has been reported from a former Brewers player, Erik Kratz.

Kratz played a huge role on the 2018 Brewers and essentially took over the starting catcher job down the stretch and in the postseason.

Erik Kratz pointedly states that the Colorado Rockies used an illegal sign stealing system in the 2018 NLDS and the Brewers caught them.

In an interview on a YES Network podcast, Curtain Call, Erik Kratz holds nothing back and tells the world that the Rockies had an illegal sign-stealing system with monitors in the dugout and a massage gun on the dugout bench.

Now this is a bombshell report that no one has accused the Rockies of previously. According to Kratz, the Brewers knew about it and caught them in the act. Because they were able to catch them before the series started, the Brewers were able to devise a plan to render their system useless.

It worked.

As Kratz pointed out, the only runs the Rockies scored in the entire series were two runs in the ninth inning of one of the games in Milwaukee. Brewers pitchers held them to almost nothing in the three game series.

It must be a satisfying feeling knowing you caught your opponent cheating and were able to devise a plan to render their cheating useless.

Winning that series sent the Brewers on to their first NLCS since 2011 in an ill-fated matchup with the Dodgers.

It’s worth noting that this system by the Rockies was used a year after the Astros had their trash can system in place and was in the same postseason that Alex Cora reportedly had his own sign-stealing system in Boston.

If you remember back during that series, Rockies hitters seemed routinely confused at the plate and were also growing increasingly frustrated. At first, perhaps the frustration was just from not hitting well in a playoff series, knowing that their season would be over if they didn’t hit. Now we know that there was another factor, a sign-stealing system that had worked for them so far that season that now was failing them.

Since their 2018 playoff exit, few things have gone right for the Rockies. They’ve now traded their superstar third baseman in Nolan Arenado and got pretty much nothing back in return, and will soon have to trade Trevor Story.

The Rockies probably won’t get in much trouble for this. That organization has been punished enough over the last three years.