Like It or Not, Astros Are 2017 World Series Champions Forever

MLBEric Christian Smith/Associated Press

The Houston Astros have raised a lot of troubling questions in the wake of the sign-stealing scandal that shook the franchise and rocked the game of baseball this offseason.

Here's an especially sobering one: Should Houston forfeit its 2017 World Series title?

As MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters Sunday, that unprecedented penalty was seriously discussed.

"We thought about it," said Manfred, "If you talk about the minutes of discussion during the process, it was high in terms of the minutes that we spent talking about it."

In the end, the league opted to allow Houston to keep the Commissioner's Trophy it won in a hard-fought (and now undeniably…