MLB’S CHEATIN’ CHAMPS
Sanctions doled, heads roll for Astros
The Houston Astros fired manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow on Monday after Major League Baseball suspended them each for a year for a cheating scandal that involved stealing pitch signs during their World Series-winning 2017 season.
The firings announcement was made by Astros owner Jim Crane about an hour after MLB announced suspensions and sanctions against the team, which also included a US$5 million fine and the loss of first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021.
Crane announced his decision to fire one of the game’s most highly regarded GM-manager combinations inside the Astros’ Minute Maid Park in Houston, where he addressed the sign-stealing.
“We need to move forward with a clean slate and the Astros will become a stronger organization because of this today,” Crane said. “You can be confident that we will always do the right thing and will not have this happen again on my watch.”
According to MLB, the sign-stealing scheme evolved during the 2017 season. At the outset it involved employees in the Astros’ video replay room using a live game feed from the centre field camera to attempt to decode and transmit opposing teams’ pitch sign sequences.
At one point, then-Astros bench coach Alex Cora arranged for a technician to install a monitor displaying the centre field camera shots near the Houston dugout so players could watch, figure out the signs and hit a trash can with a bat to signal to their batter what type of pitch was coming, MLB said.
“The conduct described herein has caused fans, players, executives at other MLB clubs, and members of the media to raise questions about the integrity of games in which the Astros participated,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in his written decision. “And while it is impossible to determine whether the conduct actually impacted the results on the field, the perception of some that it did causes significant harm to the game.”
Cora, now the manager of the Boston Red Sox, was not disciplined, but the report indicates he could still face penalties when MLB concludes its investigation into allegations of sign stealing by the Red Sox in 2018. Current Toronto Blue Jays bench coach Dave Hudgens was the hitting coach for the Astros during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. According to the Jays, Hudgens cooperated with the league in its probe and was not mentioned specifically in the nine-page MLB report.