Luhnow denies knowledge of sign-stealing scheme

Ousted Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow says he was not aware the team was using electronic means to steal signs from opponents in 2017-18 and that the system “made no sense” given the team’s talent.

In an interview with KPRC (Channel 2) that aired Monday night, Luhnow said his claim of innocence is bolstered by information contained in thousands of text messages involving team video room personnel that he received after he was fired by Astros owner Jim Crane in January.

“They (video room employees) were aware it was wrong, and they also were using text messages to cheat on the

job,” Luhnow told Channel 2. “Theywere communicating signs, and this was to coaches, this was to people in the video room. It’s all there in black and white.

“And what’s also clear from it is who’s not involved. I’m not implicated. I’m not in any of those text messages. In fact, there’s a few text messages where they say, ‘Don’t tell Jeff.’ ”

The Channel 2 interview was among Luhnow’s first public comments since Jan. 13, when he said after he and manager A. J. Hinch were fired that he did not “direct, oversee or engage in any misconduct” by the Astros.

He also has spoken with former Sports Illustrated writer Ben Reiter for a podcast called “The Edge” that premiered last week.

Luhnow and Hinch were fired by Crane after Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred suspended them for the 2020 season, fined the Astros $5 million, and stripped the club of first- and secondround draft choices in 2020 and 2021.

The architect of the Astros’ turnaround from doormats to champions, Luhnow said the cheating scheme “was wrong, and it should never have happened, and I’m upset … for our fans; I’m upset for players on other teams that gave up hits as a result of this that should never have happened. Ifwewon games because of it, it should never have happened, and we didn’t need to do it. … It made no sense to me.”

While Luhnow addressed several aspects of the scandal in the 37-minute interview, he was not asked to elaborate on another key element of Manfred’s report: that he and Hinch failed “to establish a culture in which adherence to the rules is ingrained in the fabric of the organization, and to stop bad behavior as soon as it occurred.”

His only reference to the Astros’ cultural issues came when he said he objects to comments that “Luhnow’s the mastermind, Luhnow was behind this, this is Luhnow’s culture.”

“It couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said. “And I have to let people know that. My integrity is being questioned here. … And it’s wrong. I was accused of something I didn’t do.”

The Astros’ use of live video to steal signs in real time in 2017, whenthe team won its first and onlyWorld Series title, was first disclosed in November by the website the Athletic.

In his interview with Channel 2, Luhnow specified that the text messages in his possession involved the scheme inwhich signals from a television camera at Minute Maid

Park during gameswere fed toavideo room near the Astros’ dugout.

He said he was not referring to the system in which players banged on a trash can in a tunnel behind the dugout to indicate when a pitcherwas going to throw a breaking ball.

Luhnow said the “cabal” of video room employees who worked on the “Codebreaker” project were “aligned with the coaches who were executing the video decoding scheme.”

The only coach from the 2017 Astros cited by MLB was Alex Cora, who left the team in 2018 to manage the Boston Red Sox. Cora was fired by the Red Sox after MLB said he was among those who “originated and executed” aspects of the cheating scheme,

“They were text-messaging signs to a coach who would be in the dugout so that he could communicate the signs to the runner at second,” Luhnow said. “And it went on for all of 2017, and it went on for a portion of 2018. … It probably stopped around midsummer’18, and then there’s absolutely no evidence of it going on after that.”

Manfred in his report said that while Luhnow denied knowledge of the scheme, “documentary and testimonial evidence” indicated he had some knowledge of cheating “but did not give it much attention.”

Luhnow said two of the documents to which Manfred referred were 1,500-word e-mail messages in May 2017 and August 2017 that referred to “the system” several hundred words into the text. He said he did not read either email closely before responding.

“I never typed the words ‘sign stealing.’ I never typed the word ‘decoder.’ I never communicated or spoke to anybody about any of these things,” he said. “The absence of any facts regarding me speak very loudly.”

Luhnow also distanced himself from another matter related to the Astros’ cultural issues cited by Manfred: the profane, insensitive remarks directed by one of his assistants, Brandon Taubman, to a group of female reporters in the Astros’ clubhouse in October 2019.

He said an Astros news release, in which the team denied the accuracy of a story by a Sports Illustrated reporter who was in the group to which Taubman’s remarkswere directed, was written by those in charge of the team’s legal department and its marketing and public relations staff.

He said he objected to the release, which said the Sports Illustrated story was “misleading and completely irresponsible” and an“attempt to fabricate a story where one does not exist.” However, he said he did not object “as vociferously as I wish I would have.”

“It was very clear, immediately after the response was sent out, that it was horrificallywrong,” he said. “And it made us look terrible.”

The Astros subsequently retracted the statement and fired Taubman. A day later, Luhnow said he was instructed to address a news conference and told not to disclose who crafted the news release.

He said he followed instructions, which “essentially made me the face of the response because no one else was willing to face the music.”

“I received a text message from (a) person who had been involved in writing it and crafting it thanking me for ‘taking one for the team,’ ” he said “I shouldn’t have taken one for the team. I didn’t write that response. It was a horrible response. It never should have happened. But unfortunately, I did.

“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.”

“My integrity is being questioned here. … And it’s wrong. I was accused of something I didn’t do.” Ex-GM Jeff Luhnow, on the Astros’ sign stealing