Though they've been put on the back burner due to the coronavirus pandemic and the shutdown of MLB, the findings of the investigation into sign-stealing allegations against the Red Sox's from 2018 have yet to be released. On that front, 2018 World Series MVP Steve Pearce had two interesting things to say during a Tuesday radio appearance on Boston station WEEI. 

The 37-year-old, who played 13 seasons in the majors, announced his retirement from baseball and also called the sign-stealing allegations a "joke." Pearce believes he and his 2018 Red Sox teammates will be vindicated. 

Here's more via a transcript from Masslive: 

"That's such a joke to us," Pearce told WEEI. "When it came out we were all kind of joking about it. We just want this to pass us. We won it fair and square. Whatever they accused us of, we were all kind of like, 'I can't believe this is even an issue.' Once the report comes out we're all going to be free.

"... You don't like it, especially that we were the champions and individually I have that award. And we have this floating over our head when we just had such an unbelievable season. We had the perfect team and great camaraderie with everybody and then this gets thrown out here. We're just like, 'What the heck?' ... We just want this to pass us. We just want to play some baseball. Another bump in the road, I guess."

The scandal, in tandem with the one in Houston, has already cost former manager Alex Cora his job. 

Meantime, Pearce did announce his retirement, though his hand was forced. He hit .180/.245/.258 last season at age 36 and was unsigned heading to 2020. 

Thus ends a 13-season MLB career in which Pearce played for the Pirates, Orioles, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Rays, Yankees and Astros. Yes, he played for the entire AL East. 

In 766 career games, Pearce hit .254/.332/.440 (108 OPS+) with 572 hits, 131 doubles, 91 homers, 303 RBI and 290 runs. He will be most remembered for his World Series MVP. During that series, he was 4 for 12, but three of those four hits were home runs and he drove home eight runs. He also walked four times without striking out and scored five runs. Two of those homers came in the championship-clinching Game 5: 

Pearce won't soon be forgotten in Boston after that series. As for that team's vindication, time will tell.