Carlos: No punishment, but plenty of questions
future.
What was most telling in Manfred’s nine-page report was his scathing indictment of Luhnow. Above and beyond the electronic cheating, Luhnow and his top assistant, Brandon Taubman, (who was also suspended for a year) fostered an ugly culture of arrogance, public relations indifference, and poor treatment of women. “The culture of baseball operations department, manifesting itself in the way its employees were treated, its relations with other Clubs, and its relations with the media and external stakeholders has been very problematic,” Manfred said.
The best justice of all for Luhnow would be that he never works in baseball again; that his one-year suspension unofficially becomes a lifetime ban, and he joins Pete Rose and the White Sox Eight as the 10th man out.
Carlos Beltran, as it turns out, did know what pitches were coming his way in 2017. The only problem? Major League Baseball revealed he cheated to obtain that knowledge. Commissioner Rob Manfred dealt severe punishments to members of the Astros organization on Monday in a nine-page report that detailed the elements of the club’s “player-driven scheme” to steal signs in 2017.
Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch were among those to receive one-year suspensions, but Beltran — who won a championship with the Astros in 2017 — escaped discipline.
Beltran publicly denied any comment on the sign-stealing scandal during last month’s Winter Meetings. Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen remained confident since November that Beltran would not face a suspension and that the scandal was not a Mets issue.
MLB, however, concluded the Astros, including Beltran, decoded signs using a center-field camera that displayed its feed on a monitor installed near the dugout. Players then banged a trash can to relay off-speed pitches to the batter. The Astros also utilized the replay review room to decode and transmit signs.
Beltran is the only player on the 2017 Astros mentioned in the report, and his name is cited just once. The report plainly states, “Approximately two months into the 2017 season, a group of players, including Carlos Beltran, discussed that the team could improve on decoding opposing teams’ signs and communicating the signs to the batter.”
The report also states “virtually all of the Astros’ players had some involvement or knowledge of the scheme” and the commissioner “is not in a position based on the investigative record to determine with any degree of certainty every player who should be held accountable, or their relative degree of culpability.” MLB deemed it would be impractical to punish players — given the large number of them involved — and the fact that many of those players now play for other teams.
“The 2017 scheme in which players banged on a trash can was, with the exception of (bench coach Alex) Cora, player-driven and player-executed,” the report states.
The league will not assess discipline against individual Astros players, choosing instead to discipline the topmost members of the organization in Luhnow and Hinch. MLB is still investigating Cora, whose name is littered throughout the report, as the person who arranged for a video room technician to install a monitor displaying the center-field camera feed immediately outside of the Astros’ dugout. Cora is reportedly expected to receive a harsh punishment.
The lack of accountability on Beltran’s shoulders allows the Mets to distance themselves from the example-setting scandal, one of baseball’s most consequential violations of rules in recent memory. Though, not yet completely off the hook, Beltran will be forced to explain his involvement in the scandal come spring training. It’s a minor burden when considering the alternative could have involved a suspension.
The full list of Astros’ penalties related to the sign-stealing scheme include one-year suspensions for Luhnow and Hinch, losses of their first and second round draft picks in 2020 and ’21 and a fine of $5 million. Astros owner Jim Crane fired both Luhnow and Hinch shortly after MLB’s decision was made public.
MLB’s investigation began after former Astros player Mike Fiers publicly alleged in an article published this past November by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic that the Astros had engaged in sign-stealing methods in 2017 that violated MLB’s rules. Beltran was hired as Mets manager two weeks before The Athletic article was published.
As Beltran prepares for his first season as a major-league manager, he must now be mindful of his actions in the Mets dugout. Presumably, the Astros’ punishment will be enough to stop Beltran from bringing his knowledge of illegal sign-stealing methods to the Mets, but watchful eyes will linger to make sure of it.