MLB’s Astros investigation is ‘most thorough’ ever
SAN DIEGO – Major League Baseball is undergoing “the most thorough investigation that the commissioner’s office has ever undertaken,” Rob Manfred proclaimed last week, to get to the bottom of the cheating allegations involving the Astros.
The league had already interviewed nearly 60 witnesses, Manfred said, including 76,000 emails and a “whole additional trove of instant messages,” to determine whether the Astros used electronic equipment to steal signs in recent seasons.
“It is my hope to conclude the investigation just as promptly as possible,” Manfred said, “but it’s really hard to predict how long something like that is going to take.”
Rival teams, executives and opposing players want the Astros to be penalized to the fullest. They want the Houston team to pay the biggest fine in history. They want the Astros to lose multiple first-round draft picks.
They want GM Jeff Luhnow permanently suspended from baseball, saying the cheating is more egregious than the Braves circumventing international signing rules, with GM John Coppolella banned for life and Atlanta being stripped of 13 prospects.
And they want manager A.J. Hinch to receive a two-year suspension.
Manfred declined to discuss what kinds of discipline he is considering. “I’m going to get all the facts in front of me and make a decision as promptly as possible on discipline,” he said.
Hinch said he can’t comment on the investigation and that he met twice with investigators.
“There will be a day when I get to address all of it,” he said. “I hope there’s going to be a day when we get past this and we can move forward. But until they’re done with the investigation, everything that it encompasses, I just can’t talk about it.”
“What I can say is I’ve committed my time and energy to cooperate with MLB. I’ve talked to them a couple times, and we continue to work with them as they navigate the investigation, and now we’re waiting with everything in their hands.”
In other news from Manfred’s news conference:
The three-batter minimum rule for pitchers, along with other procedural changes to the injured list and roster option limits, are scheduled to be implemented in 2020.
Major League Baseball will have expanded netting in all 30 ballparks that expand to at least the far end of each dugout. Seven teams will have netting going to the foul poles.
Manfred declined to go into details about negotiations with Minor League Baseball to downsize teams, saying there has been no agreement, but expressed his anger that negotiations leaked to the media.
“Major League Baseball has been and will remain flexible in its negotiating position,” Manfred said. “I hope that Minor League Baseball, which has taken the position that they’re not willing to discuss anything but the status quo or any changes that would provide for upgrades in adequate facilities, better working conditions for our players. That they move off the takeit-or-leave-it status quo approach and come to the table and try to make a deal. …
“In contrast, I think some of the activities that have been undertaken by the leadership of Minor League Baseball have been polarizing in terms of the relationship with the owners. I think they’ve done damage to the relationship with Major League Baseball, and I’m hopeful that we will be able to work through that damage in the negotiating room and reach a new agreement.
“You know, when people publicly attack a longtime partner after they’ve committed to confidentiality in the negotiating process, usually people don’t feel so good about that.”
Manfred said Angels starter Tyler Skaggs’s death last summer was the impetus for MLB to begin testing for opioids in 2020.
MLB has no plans to switch to a synthetic baseball to alleviate the variability in the makings of baseballs.
“I would not, am not now, and would not be in favor of moving away from the baseball that has traditionally been used to play what I regard to be the greatest game in the world,” Manfred said.
“I think the variability in the baseball is a product of the fact that it is a man-made product with natural materials. … I think that’s part of the charm of the game and the reason that I’m prepared to live with that variability is both teams play with the same baseball.”
Manfred believes the contracts for Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg by the Yankees and Nationals, respectively, don’t mean that small-market clubs cannot compete for the World Series.
“I think that we have an economic system that has produced a remarkable level of competitive balance over a very long period of time – big market, small market,” Manfred said. “We had a number of small markets last year who had really successful seasons, Tampa and Oakland among them.
“Do I deny that Tampa can’t sign a pitcher for $326 million? I don’t deny that. That’s a fact. Having said that, I think there are other areas in our system that allow those smaller markets to compete, and I think Tampa and Oakland, two good examples, Minnesota another good one who take advantage of those parts of the system and put very, very competitive teams on the field.”
Manfred believes the signings this winter reflects that the free agent system is still working well in baseball and that there is no need for dramatic change in the upcoming collective bargaining agreement.
“Remember we have the freest free agency in professional sports,” he said. “No rights of first refusal. No salary cap. No franchise tags. None of that. It has produced the largest amount of guaranteed dollars for players in any professional sport.”
MLB will conduct its amateur draft in Omaha, Nebraska, on June 10, the first time the draft will be held without overlapping with the College World Series.
There were a record 22 collegiate players drafted in the first round last year, including seven whose teams were playing in the College World Series.