In 2019, Altuve's role in the 2017 World Series gained nationwide attention in the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal. With regard to the scandal, Altuve said, "I'm not going to say to you that it was good — it was wrong. We feel bad, we feel remorse, like I said, the impact on the fans, the impact on the game — we feel bad." According to the website signstealingscandal.com, Altuve's instances of hearing the trash can banging were significantly lower than those of any other everyday player. Peter Gammons noted in 2022 that when he talked to Altuve in 2020 about how players, coaches, and members in the organization believed that Altuve did not participate in the stealing, Altuve declined to talk about it. He stated that it would be a "betrayal of my teammates" to discuss the matter and asked that Gammons not write about it. Despite this, many Astros players have defended Altuve in particular of any wrongdoing. Carlos Correa, in an interview with Ken Rosenthal, stated of Altuve's role in the scandal: "The few times that the trash can was banged was without his consent, and he would go inside the clubhouse and inside the dugout to whoever was banging the trash can and he would get pissed. He would get mad. He would say, 'I don't want this. I can't hit like this. Don't you do that to me.' He played the game clean"; Correa's comments came after Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger accused Altuve of stealing the MVP Award from runner-up Aaron Judge.
Did José Altuve cheat in 2017?
José Altuve played for the 2017 Astros, who are known to have used an illegal sign stealing system, but Altuve himself did not participate in the system and did not cheat.