Rizzo says it's '100 percent safe to say' Chicago Cubs never crossed line with cheating

The Mets' Carlos Beltran became the third major-league manager to lose his job Thursday in the ugly wake of the Astros' sign-stealing scandal.

Houston manager A.J. Hinch was fired Monday and Alex Cora was let go by the Red Sox Tuesday.

Cora was Houston's bench coach in 2017 and Beltran played for the now jaded World Series champions. Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow also was fired.

At Horner Park Thursday on the eve of the 35th annual Cubs Convention, first baseman Anthony Rizzo reacted to baseball's bombshell week.

"I don't think I know all that happened," Rizzo said. "Obviously, Major League Baseball did a huge, monster investigation and they decided what they thought was best. I'm sure a lot of decisions and time went into that, so we support them with the consequences they made. It's something that hopefully gets fixed fast."

The senior-ranking player at eight seasons, Rizzo said the Cubs have never used videos or other electronics to gain an unfair advantage.

"I think it's 100 percent safe to say," Rizzo said. "That's for sure on the record."

That's not to say the Cubs haven't resorted to employing some gamesmanship.

"In-game stuff, I think everyone will say gaining the edge in the game is totally different on the field," Rizzo said. "It's like football, you hear the quarterback say 'Omaha' and you know Peyton Manning is going left or something. That's in-game stuff.

"But some of the video stuff that I've heard, I don't know if it's true, obviously it is with the penalties, that I think takes it a little bit too far. MLB has done a good job the last few years of having guys in the clubhouse and all around monitoring it.

"So to be doing it still is not easy and it's blatantly going out of the way."