The Astros’ scheme was the most prevalent, thorough, and arguably the most advantageous in terms of real-time at-bats. But Betts was candid when asked if he was aware that the 2018 Red Sox occasionally used live video to steal signs.

“Yeah,” Betts told Hernandez. “Everybody was.”

Betts, who endorsed Watkins’ hiring along with another former Sox regular in J.D. Martinez, said that Boston did not use any sign-stealing schemes during the 2018 World Series against the Dodgers.

During MLB’s investigation that resulted in Watkins’ suspension, the league ruled that the Red Sox utilized sign-stealing measures only during the 2018 regular season. The report yielded insufficient evidence of Boston using those same schemes during the 2018 postseason or the 2019 regular season.

Betts acknowledged that Boston used their sign-stealing scheme infrequently.

“Every now and … It’s kind of hard to remember,” Betts noted.

However, Betts added that stealing signs was far from the reason why the 2018 Red Sox were so dominant.

According to Evan Drellich’s book, “Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess,” the Boston Red Sox thought the Los Angeles Dodgers also tried to steal signs in the 2018 World Series. Keep in mind, the Red Sox were involved in their own sign-stealing scandal in that same series.

Per Chad Finn and Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, a member of the Red Sox said in the book:

“The Dodgers have always been the thing that bothers me the most. Because they’re the biggest cheaters in the whole [expletive] industry. … They were doing it against us in the ‘18 World Series. They got caught by Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball did nothing.”

The Red Sox were accused of using their replay room to steal signs during the 2018 regular season. Per a report from commissioner Rob Manfred in 2020:

“I find that J.T. Watkins, the Red Sox video replay system operator, on at least some occasions during the 2018 regular season, utilized the game feeds in the replay room, in violation of MLB regulations, to revise sign sequence information that he had permissibly provided to players prior to the game.”

According to Evan Drellich’s new book, “Winning Fixes Everything,” Cora would boast about the Astros’ sign-stealing exploits to members of the Red Sox once he changed jobs. Notably, he’d reportedly get a little loose with the lips once he started drinking.

From the Boston Herald:

When Cora arrived in Boston to manage the Red Sox in 2018, he would “occasionally talk about the Astros’ sign-stealing from 2017, even brag, sometimes in a late-night setting,” Drellich wrote.

“Especially when they started drinking,” a member of the Red Sox reportedly said.

“We stole that (expletive) World Series,” Cora allegedly said.

While many teams were accused of illegally stealing signs during those years, Cora’s acts were seen as particularly egregious.

“We knew the Astros did [steal signs],” another member of the Red Sox told Drellich, “because Alex Cora told us. He said that when they played the Dodgers, ‘We already knew what everybody was throwing before we even got on base. We didn’t have to get on base.’ And everybody was like, ‘What the hell does that mean?’ “

The book details much more than simply the Astros’ sign-stealing operation in 2017, including habits of teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers.