Former Astros GM denies role in sign stealing
‘Had I known about it, I would have stopped it’
A little more than nine months after he was fired by the Houston Astros in the wake of their sign-stealing scandal, Jeff Luhnow denied knowing anything about it, adding that perhaps one day he might return to the sport.
Luhnow, the former general manager, admitted, “it was bad” and “it shouldn’t have happened” but maintained he would have stopped the cheating, which The Washington Post reported in February was an open secret inside baseball, if he had been aware it was going on in 2017, when the Astros won the World Series, and 2018.
“Our team broke the rules and I’m sure there was some advantage gained from breaking the rules,” he told KPRC reporter Vanessa Richardson.
“But, unfortunately, had I known about it, I would have stopped it. Nobody came to me and told me it was going on, and I just didn’t know.”
Luhnow, who said he was “shocked” when his name came up in connection with the electronic sign-stealing scandal, said he told MLB commissioner Rob Manfred that he would be willing to take a lie- detector test to show his innocence. However, he and A. J. Hinch, the team’s manager, were suspended for a year and Hinch was fired, too.
“I was not expecting a year-long suspension,” Luhnow said, “I was certainly not expecting for the team I spent eight years building to fire me and let me go.”
Luhnow might be in the minority there, given the outrage over the scandal.
“I know the Dodgers, for sure, were adamant about some big punishments and they wanted the manager, and they wanted the general manager to go down in this scandal and they got it,” Luhnow said.
“And I think the investigation was not attempting to really uncover who did what, and who was really responsible. The goal of the investigation was to deliver punishments that Rob could feel good about and that would calm the panic.”
Luhnow also said he was caught off- guard by a 2019 incident in which a team employee made insensitive remarks. The Astros’ initial response was deemed reprehensible by The Post’s Barry Svrluga.
Assistant general manager Brandon Taubman was fired for yelling in the direction of the female reporters who were covering the Astros’ celebration after winning Game 6 of the ALCS, “Thank God we got Osuna! I’m so (expletive) glad we got Osuna!” — referring to Astros closer Roberto Osuna, who was acquired in a trade in 2018 from the Toronto Blue Jays after being suspended for violating baseball’s domestic violence policy.
Sports Illustrated reporter Stephanie Apstein, who witnessed the incident, wrote about it and the Astros, in an initial statement, called the report “misleading” and “completely irresponsible.” The team’s statement accused Apstein of trying to “fabricate” a story. But other witnesses corroborated Apstein’s account, including one who wears a purple domestic violence awareness bracelet and who was the primary target of Taubman’s tirade. Luhnow said at the time that the statement “never should have ben sent” but acknowledged that he had seen it.
“That’s not my area of expertise. I was busy preparing for the World Series,” Luhnow told Richardson. “There are people in the company; the legal department, the marketing department, the PR department; those are the people that are involved in crisis management. And they botched this one big time.”
Now, months after being fired, Luhnow sounds like a guy who might want to return to baseball.
“It would depend on the owners,” he said. “I was not expecting to be treated the way I was treated at the end by the owners of the Astros. If I trusted the owners and the team had potential, and I wanted to do it again, I know I could.”