WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Kurt Suzuki is 36 years old. At this point in his life, he doesn’t want to be involved in outside noise. That became a bit more complicated after the veteran catcher spoke out against the Astros for the findings in Major League Baseball’s investigation of sign-stealing in 2017 and became the subject of Carlos Correa’s comments.

“Honestly, I’m too old to get in the middle,” Suzuki said on Sunday morning. “I really don’t associate myself with this kind of stuff. I just kind of go about my business and try to stay out of everything and get ready to play baseball. That’s what it’s about -- playing baseball.”

The Nationals have been connected to the Astros since they defeated them in Game 7 to win the 2019 World Series. Suzuki’s link to the situation heightened on Wednesday, when he was asked by the Washington Post if he thought Houston was stealing signs in the World Series.

“Oh, yeah, no question,” Suzuki replied. “We could hear it from their dugout. We heard their whistling. What are you going to do?”

He went on to say, “The whole thing was crazy. I got messed up on signs a couple of times, had to call time and take us out of rhythm. I kept thinking, ‘We have to go to the field and work early on our signs in the World Series just to stop their cheating.’ It’s so stupid and so wrong.”

In response to Suzuki’s take, Correa told reporters on Saturday:

“I heard Kurt Suzuki’s comments also saying they were cheating. So you guys now, all the players now, are above the lawyers that MLB is using, above the Commissioner’s report. Like seriously, bro, the Commissioner’s report clearly says in 2019 nothing happened. Just straight up baseball players with talent playing the game of baseball. You have the audacity to tell the reporters they were cheating because you heard the whistles?

“Oh, and they won the championship and he’s still talking about that? Enjoy your ring, enjoy your teammates, enjoy what you guys accomplished and congratulations to you guys. You guys played better than us. That was it.”

On Sunday, Suzuki said he did not have evidence of the Astros’ sign-stealing during the World Series, but that the Nationals prepared just in case -- which included changing up their signs. As a catcher, he played a key role in trying to prevent this from happening.

“You hear stuff around the league and all you do is, you do your due diligence and you try to prepare yourselves to not get into that situation,” he said. “We just did our homework on our end and did everything we possibly [could] to combat the rumors that were going around, and we just prepared ourselves. That was the bottom line, just getting ready for it if it did happen.”

Suzuki mentioned several times his focus for Spring Training is soaking up the Nats’ World Series championship and being prepared to defend it. As his teammate Max Scherzer noted on Thursday, he would prefer the Astros are the ones to address the situation, not the Nationals.

“That’s their situation,” Suzuki said. “I think Sherz said it best. They are the ones that have to do the answering. We’re just getting ready for the 2020 season to defend the title. That’s it. The bottom line is, we’re getting ready, enjoying our teammates, enjoying the World Series and getting ready for the season.”