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A.J. Hinch

Astros’ Jim Crane On Luhnow, Hinch, Sign-Stealing Scandal, Taubman

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Even though GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch were incredibly successful atop the Astros, the club let them go last offseason in the wake of a sign-stealing scandal. Major League Baseball also came down hard on Luhnow and Hinch in suspending them for a year apiece, and it fined the Astros $5MM and took away their first- and second-round picks this summer and next.

Astros owner Jim Crane spoke about Luhnow, Hinch and stealing signs, among other topics, in a wide-ranging interview with Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

In regards to Luhnow and Hinch, Crane said, “You hate to see what happened to those guys because they didn’t instigate this thing.” Nevertheless, Crane believed the Astros had no choice but to part with Luhnow and Hinch, who he hopes “get back in the business.”

The Astros negotiated a settlement on the remainder of Hinch’s contract, which ran through 2022, per Nightengale. They haven’t done so with Luhnow, whose deal went through 2023 and whom they fired for “just cause.” It’s possible the two sides will end up in court to settle the matter, according to Nightengale.

With the Luhnow/Hinch era in the rearview mirror, the club’s “sorry” about its misdeeds, said Crane, who guarantees “it will never happen again.” He also observed: “I think (MLB) had a bigger problem than everybody realized. Two other teams (the Yankees and Red Sox) were doing things and got caught, but we’re the ones who took the bullet. That’s the way it works. I’m not trying to blame anyone else. It was our problem. We dealt with it.”

The Yankees were fined for improper use of a dugout phone in 2017, but there’s no evidence that they ever engaged in stealing signs to the extent the Astros did. Meanwhile, the Red Sox lost a second-round pick this year and let go of manager and former Astros bench coach Alex Cora, whom the league suspended for a year, on account of their own sign-stealing violations from their World Series-winning 2018 campaign.

Before the Astros’ sign-stealing crimes became public information, they came under fire during the postseason last year when then-assistant GM Brandon Taubman taunted a group of women reporters, yelling, “Thank God we got Osuna! I’m so f—— glad we got Osuna!” He was, of course, referring to closer Roberto Osuna, whom the Astros traded for in 2018 despite the fact that he was amid a 75-game domestic violence suspension at the time. The Astros then made the tone-deaf move of questioning the credibility of Sports Ilustrated’s Stephanie Apstein, who reported Taubman’s comments, only to fire Taubman shortly after that and apologize to Apstein.

Several months later, Crane is still not condemning Taubman. In his talk with Nightengale, Crane stated that “Brandon Taubman didn’t commit domestic violence. He just made a comment. It’s nothing you can defend. He had a few cocktails. He was happy. There were people constantly coming at him over (Osuna), and he overreacted. Did he do the right thing? No. Everybody makes mistakes. But is he a good, genuine decent person and smart kid? Absolutely.”

Between the sign stealing and Taubman’s behavior, it would have been fair to question the Astros’ culture under their previous regime. Indeed, when commissioner Rob Manfred leveled punishment against the franchise, he concluded that the Astros had an “insular culture’’ issue. But Crane told Nightengale, “We didn’t have a culture problem. They’re isolated incidents that are unrelated.”

Season Cancellation Would Not Delay Luhnow, Hinch Reinstatement

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Former Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch will not serve any suspension time beyond 2020, regardless of whether a season is played, according to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney. Both were fired by the Houston organization after MLB issued year-long bans arising out of the sign-stealing scandal of the 2017 Astros.

Per the report, this determination was made “because the suspensions are tied to the end of the 2020 postseason rather than a specific number of games.” That’s not necessarily a compelling technical reading — if that’s even the right way to address the matter. Regardless, it does seem consistent in substance with the reported handling of player suspensions.

If indeed this is how commissioner Rob Manfred handles things, then the path will be clear for both Luhnow and Hinch to return later this year — as had been the case before the surprise coronavirus shutdown.Presumably, the same determination will hold for former Astros bench coach and Red Sox manager Alex Cora, if he ends up being suspended.

Whether or not that comes to pass will obviously depend upon whether some team takes a chance. When we polled MLBTR readers in early February, most anticipated that Luhnow would never return to a GM seat but that Hinch would again be tasked with leading a dugout. Hinch was certainly a more broadly popular figure and has struck a much more conciliatory tone since the sign-stealing scandal broke. On the other hand, he was also in the dugout while the illicit activity occurred and did not avail himself of the many avenues to halt it. It is less clear to what extent Luhnow was fully aware of the cheating scheme.

MLBTR Poll: The Futures Of Jeff Luhnow, A.J. Hinch

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Former Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch were among the most successful in baseball in their positions, but their legacies have been tarnished over the past few weeks. Almost a month ago, Major League Baseball suspended the pair for a year apiece for their roles in a 2017 sign-stealing scandal that has dominated headlines in recent weeks. In an effort to distance themselves from Luhnow and Hinch, the Astros fired both of them shortly after MLB banned the two for the 2020 campaign. The question now is whether either will return to their previous jobs with other teams when their suspensions end.

The Astros hired Luhnow, a former Cardinals executive, as their GM heading into the 2012 season. The club endured a couple incredibly lean years thereafter, winning 50-some games in Luhnow’s first two seasons, before beginning an upward climb that culminated in three straight 100-win campaigns from 2017-19. The Astros won their first-ever championship and a couple AL pennants in that three-year span, but now the legitimacy of that run is in question. Luhnow, per a report from the Wall Street Journal on Friday, may have been complicit in a sign-stealing scheme called “Codebreaker.”

While Luhnow denied having a role in “Codebreaker”, commissioner Rob Manfred disagreed, saying that “there is more than sufficient evidence to support a conclusion that you knew—and overwhelming evidence that you should have known—that the Astros maintained a sign-stealing program that violated MLB’s rules.”

Hinch, meanwhile, has come off as more contrite than Luhnow. He has owned up to the fact that the Astros committed wrongdoing on his watch. That should help Hinch’s cause if he attempts to become a manager again. It’ll have to be with another team, though. The Rubicon has been crossed in Houston, where he won’t get his old job back. The same applies to Luhnow. But do you expect another team to hire either of them sometime after their suspensions expire?

(Luhnow poll for app users)

(Hinch poll for app users)

New Details Emerge On Astros Sign-Stealing Scandal

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Much as we’d all rather focus on other matters, it’s impossible to ignore the still-fully-emerging Astros sign-stealing scandal. Jeff Luhnow and A.J. Hinch lost their jobs; the club was penalized with sacrificed draft picks and a fine. But that didn’t close the book on the matter. Developments this evening contributed significant new information, potentially impacting both the interpretation of the events and the evolution of the fallout.

First came an eye-popping new report from Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal that unveiled the role of the Houston front office in the sign-stealing effort. Though commissioner Rob Manfred had characterized it as a player-driven scheme — even as he worked out a deal that exempted players from punishment — he also sent a letter to Luhnow detailing a host of facts about the front office’s involvement that were not previously known publicly.

You’ll need to read the detailed story for the full account, but we’ll touch upon a few key points. The scheme is said to have been hatched before the 2017 season when the Astros analytical department cooked up a program — deemed “Codebreaker,” if you can believe it — that enabled swift sign deduction. As Diamond puts it, this “laid the groundwork” for the eventual trashcan-banging signaling effort that was utilized by Astros players, coaches, and video room staffers. “Codebreaker” was utilized in 2017 and 2018; it was deployed both in home and road contests.

So far as Luhnow’s knowledge and involvement goes, he was assuredly aware of “Codebreaker.” And there’s a fair compilation of evidence suggesting he knew just how it was being used on a game-by-game basis, including an email that Luhnow received (but claims not to have fully read) in which Astros director of advance information Tom Koch-Weser referred to “our dark arts, sign-stealing department” (a moniker he also used in other circumstances).

There are loads of scandalous details involving Koch-Weser, with Luhnow disputing them. Other junior employees involved in the efforts indicated that Luhnow was likely aware “Codebreaker” was being used in real-time during games, though it seems there was at least some amount of plausible doubt.

So far as is known publicly, lower-level Astros front office employees involved or potentially involved in the scandal have not been punished or removed from their jobs. Manfred found that there was a larger cultural problem in the Houston baseball operations department, but owner Jim Crane has disputed that characterization. Crane hired new GM James Click to take over for Luhnow an otherwise generally unchanged department (apart from voluntary departures, so far as is known).

The scope of the scandal remains an important element in understanding and assessing the matter. As noted above, today’s news suggests that the illicit actions were broader than had previously been known.

There’s one other item that hints at potential expansion of the known bounds of the overall sign-stealing/signalling effort.

Hinch, who has been more forthcoming with contrition for his role in failing to intercede with the scheme as the club’s top uniformed employee, held an interview with Tom Verducci for MLB Network. (Video and write-up via MLB.com’s Alyson Footer.) He accepted without condition that the team was wrong for its actions and that he personally failed to exercise his leadership power and responsibility to halt the cheating.

Curiously, though, Hinch declined an opportunity to shut the door fully on a theory that has been floated with varying levels of evidence and seriousness regarding the Astros’ 2019 season. When asked whether Houston players had utilized buzzers to convey signs to hitters in the just-concluded campaign, Hinch chose to stand on the proposition that “The Commissioner’s Office did as thorough of an investigation as anyone could imagine was possible.”

It would certainly be foolish to read that oblique statement to mean that the Astros were indeed utilizing buzzers and that Hinch was aware of it. Precisely why Hinch chose to state things that way isn’t evident. But the guarded phrasing does seem to leave ample cause for exploring the topic further, to the extent that’s possible. At a minimum, it leaves some room for doubt with a team that has already proven it doesn’t deserve any. If only to eliminate that doubt, the possibility of more recent cheating now seems a matter worthy of further examination (or, if that has truly already been completed, elucidation) from the league.

Latest On Astros Managerial, GM Vacancies

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There hasn’t been much scuttlebutt in terms of the Astros’ GM vacancy – but a number of names have been floated for their next manager. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale observes that the current known pool of candidates leans heavily toward veteran, respected leaders (Dusty Baker, Buck Showalter, John Gibbons), while MLB Network insider Jon Heyman succinctly recaps what makes this hiring situation so very unique. The front office executives left behind in Houston would likely lean towards a more contemporary approach, given their heavily analytical approach, but with spring training not that far off, owner Jim Crane made the decision to hire his next field manager personally. Bringing in a field manager before the next general manager is not the ideal process, writes The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan, but little about the Astros’ current situation is.

  • Cubs third base coach Will Venable is the exception to Nightengale’s observation. When asked today at the Cubs Convention if he’d be leaving, Venable said plainly, “No, I’m not.” This, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun Times (via Twitter) and many others in attendance – though Venable did walk back the absolute denial a little bit later in the day (covered in depth by The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma here). Sitting bench coach Joe Espada has also been speculated about, though given the circumstances, an outside hire seems like the prohibitive favorite. For what it’s worth, MLBTR readers settled this issue just two days ago, electing Buck Showalter as the best choice with 34% of the vote.
  • Now a few days removed from the release of the Commissioner’s verdict on the sign-stealing scandal, most Houston Astros players have avoided public comment. Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman did speak to the media today, expressing empathy for A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luhnow, while denying any use of wearable tech, per MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. The Commissioner’s report found no evidence of wearable tech utilized by Astros players in 2019. Still, The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan writes, the organizational response (or lack thereof) from players on the whole misses an appropriate measure of contrition. As players participated in the Astros’ FanFest today, Kaplan describes a couple of scenes wherein the organization’s PR staff attempted to mollify any discussion of the scandal by pairing stars of the team under fire – Bregman and Altuve, namely – with youngsters like Kyle Tucker, Yordan Alvarez, and Abraham Toro, who were not yet with the club in 2017. 

 

 

Astros To Interview Dusty Baker

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The Houston Astros will interview veteran skipper Dusty Baker on Monday, writes MLB.com’s Matt Kelly (crediting Jon Paul Morosi). Baker has also drawn interest from the Mets to fill their recent opening. While the Astros and Baker have connected, Baker has yet to hear from the Mets (or Red Sox), per MLB Network insider Jon Heyman.

Baker managed an even 3,500 games across four stints in the majors. The Giants (1993-2002), the Cubs (2003-2006), the Reds (2008-2013) and Nationals (2016-2017) all enjoyed regular season success with Baker at the helm.

Baker hasn’t made much traction in the managerial market since parting ways with the Nationals, but unique circumstances in New York and Houston may open the door for the 70-year-old Baker to return to the bench. Certainly, Baker can handle the media scrutiny that will comes with stepping into the spotlight vacated by A.J. Hinch or Carlos Beltran, respectively.

Baker is no stranger to public scrutiny. He oversaw the Giants through Barry Bonds’ record-breaking home run season and the Cubs during their 2003 playoff collapse and the what-ifs of the Kerry Wood-Mark Prior era. He’s also the only manager in the last 24 years to take the Reds to the playoffs, which he did three times.

Playoff disappointment has also been a feature of Baker teams, however. After twice losing in the first round, Baker took the 2002 Giants to the World Series and lost. The Cubs heartbreak followed. He was unable to get either the Reds or Nationals out of the first round, getting eliminated in a winner-take-all game in each of his last four postseason appearances.

Of course, a manager cannot be solely held accountable for playoff losses, and Baker would certainly provide a semblance of much-needed stability to either franchise. Houston has said they want to have the opening filled by February 3rd.

Astros Fire Jeff Luhnow, A.J. Hinch

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In the wake of severe MLB discipline arising out of the Astros sign-stealing scandal, team owner Jim Crane announced that he has fired both GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch. It’s a stunning end to a notable tenure in Houston for both men.

The Astros organization has been a lightning rod ever since Luhnow took over in December of 2011. But the swings in fortunes have reached dizzying levels in recent months. The club bungled a self-created controversy even as it prepared for the World Series, then lost consecutive home games in spectacular fashion, thus failing to win a second title in a three-year span.

It turned out that was only the beginning. It started out as a normal-enough offseason — some change was afoot with top starter Gerrit Cole reaching free agency and Crane suggesting the team might tighten up payroll. But things took a calamitous turn when allegations emerged in mid-November that the Houston organization had improperly utilized technology to ascertain opposing teams’ signs and then convey them in real-time to Astros hitters during the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

The resulting league investigation unfolded even as public evidence emerged to fully confirm the claims. It became undeniably clear that the Astros had acted in a manner that fell well outside the traditional sign-stealing culture of the game and clearly broke the rules. Commissioner Rob Manfred had made clear previously that he’d come down hard on any teams that misused technology.

While a big punishment had been anticipated, this nevertheless rates as a momentous decision for the organization as well as for the game generally. The fallout will be immense and can’t be fully known at the moment.

From the Astros’ perspective, the firing unquestionably taints the team’s successes in recent years — even if Crane declined to acknowledge that fact in his press conference. And it raises huge questions about the future. It takes out the club’s baseball architect in Luhnow, even as his top understudies have already departed the organization. (Brandon Taubman was fired. Previously, David Stearns and Mike Elias left for GM jobs elsewhere.) There had already been some degree of uncertainty regarding the team’s precise direction this offseason and beyond. Now, the club’s top leaders are gone and more could still follow. Crane said he was still assessing the culpability of other personnel and deciding how to fill the void for the departing leaders. He’ll personally oversee baseball ops for the time being. Whether there’ll be an impact to the roster isn’t yet known.

Across the league, there’ll surely be a strong desire to avoid a similar fate. Available information and scrutiny — both publicly and within the game — are obviously reaching new heights. Manfred’s statement made clear that, despite the lack of a smoking gun linking Luhnow to the cheating effort, he and Hinch were being punished for overseeing a baseball operations department and uniformed staff that pursued it. As Crane told reporters today, it was obvious that both men were aware of and did not intervene to stop the sign-stealing. The onus will now be on other top organizational leaders to halt any untoward behavior, at risk of severe consequences.

Beyond that, any changes to the course of the Houston organization will obviously impact the broader player market and their competitors in the American League West. The organization’s philosophical approach and its near-term decisionmaking could well undergo change.

Baseball has long grappled with the cutthroat approach to roster building that Luhnow brought to the Astros. As an analytically focused executive who launched a full-blown tear-down/rebuild, that was somewhat inevitable. But the organization went to extremes to build what has been characterized as “an unprecedented player-development machine” — albeit one that also created “human costs.” The win-at-all-costs vibes left many feeling uneasy well before news emerged of actual rules violations.

Luhnow insists that he did not direct any cheating and wasn’t even aware it was occurring, as Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal reports (Twitter link). But the league investigation did find that Luhnow failed to take adequate action to ensure compliance with league rules — and that he had at least some amount of knowledge regarding the sign-stealing operation. Despite disavowing any intent to break the rules, Luhnow did state that he accepts responsibility for what went on during his stewardship of the organization’s baseball operations.

Luhnow’s baseball operations department carried an image akin to the unfeeling Soviet boxing-industrial complex portrayed in the Rocky series. But Hinch was no Ivan Drago. He and some of the team’s biggest stars put a much more personable face on the organization. He was by all appearances not only a high-quality skipper and tactician, but also a genuinely thoughtful and caring figure.

But that reputation, even if largely accurate, did not absolve Hinch of responsibility. Manfred’s report on the investigation’s findings makes clear that the manager knew what was going on. He’s said to have had some misgivings about the actions but obviously failed to act firmly to halt the operation, either by issuing clear orders to those theoretically under his command or by raising the matter to higher authorities. Hinch acknowledged as much in his own statement on the matter (via Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle, on Twitter). Though he says he did not “endorse or participate in the sign stealing practices,” he acknowledges that he “failed to stop them.”

It’s a major shift for a Houston organization that had seemingly arrived at a winning formula. With Luhnow masterminding the talent flow and Hinch maximizing the pieces made available to him, the organization built a powerhouse that won the 2017 World Series, came up just shy in another, and reeled off three-straight 100-win regular seasons. Much was achieved and it seemed likely there was more success yet to come. Quite a lot of creative thinking and hard work went into the undertaking. But the wins will be remembered with an asterisk — in collective memory, if not in the actual record books — and the Astros will now embark upon a new era under new leadership.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

MLB To Suspend Jeff Luhnow, A.J. Hinch For One Year; Astros Stripped Of Draft Picks

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Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced an unprecedented level of discipline against the Astros organization Monday in the wake of the sign-stealing scandal that many feel has called into question the legitimacy of their 2017 World Series victory. President of baseball operations/general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch will both be suspended, without pay, for one year — beginning today and running through Jan. 13, 2021.

[RELATED: Astros Fire Jeff Luhnow, A.J. Hinch]

The Astros will also lose their first- and second-round picks in each of the next two seasons and be fined the maximum $5MM that is allowable under the league’s constitution. If the team does not have a first- or second-round selection in either draft — due to draft forfeitures for signing a free agent, for instance — they’ll lose that pick in the subsequent year’s draft. Per Manfred’s report on the investigation, the Astros “will forfeit two regular first round selections and two regular second round selections in total,” whether they come in 2020-21 or in later seasons.

Punishment stemming from the 2017 sign-stealing scandal won’t stop with the Astros organization, either. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that “harsh” punishment will be levied against Red Sox manager Alex Cora as well for the role he played in the now-infamous “trash can” setup. Cora was the Astros’ bench coach at the time but was hired by the Red Sox in the 2017-18 offseason, and Manfred’s report leaves little doubt that he’ll be sanctioned heavily.

Manfred’s report outlines the role that Luhnow, Hinch, Cora and the Astros’ players had not only in the trash-can scheme but also in improperly utilizing the reply review room to decode opponents’ signs. Manfred’s report also explains the rationale for the punishment (or, in Cora’s case, the surely forthcoming punishment).

Beginning with Luhnow, Manfred details that the president/GM was “adamant” in denying knowledge of the ongoing sign-stealing scheme. However, the report cites “both documentary and testimonial evidence” which indicates that Luhnow had “some” knowledge of the operation but “did not give it much attention.” Manfred makes clear that he holds Luhnow accountable for the action of all employees, both in the front office and in the dugout, and he goes out of his way to explain that Luhnow largely neglected the memo sent out by the Commissioner’s Office regarding further disciplinary measures for improper use of technology:

Luhnow did not forward the memoranda and did not confirm that the players and field staff were in compliance with MLB rules and the memoranda. Had Luhnow taken those steps in September 2017, it is clear to me that the Astros would have ceased both sign-stealing schemes at that time.

Manfred’s report goes on to suggest that under Luhnow, the Astros’ baseball operations department has developed a “problematic” and “insular” culture that has lacked “sufficient oversight” — all of which is reflected in Luhnow’s punishment:

[W]hile no one can dispute that Luhnow’s baseball operations department is an industry leader in its analytics, it is very clear to me that the culture of the baseball operations department, manifesting itself in the way its employees are treated, its relations with other Clubs, and its relations with the media and external stakeholders, has been very problematic. At least in my view, the baseball operations department’s insular culture – one that valued and rewarded results over other considerations, combined with a staff of individuals who often lacked direction or sufficient oversight, led, at least in part,to the Brandon Taubman incident, the Club’s admittedly inappropriate and inaccurate response to that incident, and finally, to an environment that allowed the conduct described in this report to have occurred.

As far as Hinch is concerned, Manfred indicates in his report that the manager was aware but not supportive of the trash-can system. That system, it seems, was largely put into place by Cora and newly hired Mets skipper Carlos Beltran. Hinch, according to the league’s investigation, actually expressed frustration with the operation and damaged the hallway monitor to the point of needing replacement on two occasions, but he also never brought the issue to the attention of Luhnow or anyone in the Commissioner’s Office. “As the person with responsibility for managing his players and coaches, there simply is no justification for Hinch’s failure to act,” the report reads.

Furthermore, the report leaves little doubt that harsh punishment indeed is nigh for Cora. Manfred indicates that it was Cora who “arranged for a video room technician to install a monitor displaying the center field camera feed immediately outside of the Astros’ dugout.” Says Manfred of the impending discipline for Cora:

Cora was involved in developing both the banging scheme and utilizing the replay review room to decode and transmit signs. Cora participated in both schemes, and through his active participation, implicitly condoned the players’conduct. I will withhold determining the appropriate level of discipline for Cora until after the DOI completes its investigation of the allegations that the Red Sox engaged in impermissible electronic sign stealing in 2018 while Cora was the manager.

As for the players themselves, the Commissioner’s Office will not be seeking out punishment against them. That seemingly includes Beltran, who is being treated as a player (as he was in ’17) rather than his newfound role as a Major League manager. Manfred explains that in 2017, he made the decision that he “would hold a Club’s General Manager and Field Manager accountable for misconduct of this kind” and has no plans to deviate from that line of thinking. He’s also clear to note that multiple players acknowledged they were keenly aware that they were crossing a line and would have stopped had Hinch or another authority figure cracked down on the behavior — a reality that surely factored into the decision to suspend Hinch.

As for owner Jim Crane, the report indicates that he was “unaware” of any wrongdoing and will not face punishment outside of the reported $5MM fine and loss of two years’ worth of first- and second-round draft selections.

Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic first reported the news.

Sign-Stealing Punishment For Astros Expected In Coming Weeks

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It’s widely accepted at this point that the Astros impermissibly utilized technology to steal signs and then conveyed the information gleaned to hitters in the batters’ box during regular-season games. According to a report from Jeff Passan of ESPN.com, the subjects of the resulting investigation have copped to the bad acts.

With the investigative work nearing a conclusion, Passan says that commissioner Rob Manfred will likely mete out discipline within the next two weeks. Several notable figures are reportedly potential suspension targets: GM Jeff Luhnow, manager A.J. Hinch, and former bench coach/current Red Sox skipper Alex Cora.

Notably, per the report, players that participated in the elaborate-yet-ham-fisted scheme are not expected to be disciplined. But the team could end up paying a massive fine. There’s no indication yet whether a loss of draft picks or other competitive sanction might be applied. In handing down punishment for improper use of technology in 2017, Manfred promised that such penalties were on the table, saying: “[A]ll 30 Clubs have been notified that future violations of this type will be subject to more serious sanctions, including the possible loss of draft picks.”

It would never be acceptable for the product of baseball — individual contests and the overall regular/post-season championship schedule — to be compromised by teams acting outside of the rules, especially in a scheme as devious and concerted as the one allegedly put into action by the Astros. The stakes are raised yet higher by the fact that MLB is wading into murky waters in the gambling arena. And it probably doesn’t help that the league is currently facing major pushback for its plans to dramatically curtail minor league ball.

It’s a major decision for Manfred, who already watched as the Astros bungled a self-inflicted scandal involving since-fired assistant GM Brandon Taubman just months ago. He’ll certainly need to create precedent that serves as a legitimate deterrent. But doing so with respect to a marquee roster could prove challenging.

The complexities deepen when one considers the potential entanglements. Cora is one major instance. Reporting earlier today implicates the Red Sox in a less-egregious but nevertheless impermissible act of signaling espionage. The skipper could conceivably be at fault in both episodes. The Boston organization may not be alone in its manner of harnessing technology.

Untangling all of this could prove tricky. Andy Martino of SNY.tv even seems to suggest (Twitter link) that the Astros have claimed or could claim that such actions on the part of competitors might justify or at least mitigate their own rule-breaking. A source suggests, rather bizarrely, that the Houston club was simply making up for the fact that it was not able to mis-use its own replay room because it “was far away” from the dugout, unlike most other teams. If this strained logic is any indication of the thinking around the game — not to mention the actual and/or perceived pervasiveness of cheating — then the MLB rules and enforcement regime is badly in need of re-working, beginning with the imposition of clear and effective disincentives relating to this incident.

Quick Hits: Sign-Stealing Investigation Update, Padres, Myers, Hedges, Kluber, Braves, Culberson

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There seems little doubt now that the Astros participated in sign-stealing aided by a live feed from a centerfield camera. The Astros’ maintain their belief that actions at the time were “in line with industry standards,” per Andy Martino of SNY.tv. The newest sticking point is an insistence out of Houston that the camera in question was already in place and not purchased/installed specifically for the purpose of stealing signs. It may seem a bizarre place to draw a line in the sand – and on its own hardly exculpatory – but the installation of equipment does affect the breadth of involvement necessary to put their sign-stealing process in place. At least one witness claimed that many teams use a similar camera for the decoding of signs. Said the witness, “All we asked for was a live feed.” Astros’ hitting coach Alex Cintron played the part of antagonist as the conflict escalated between the Astros and Yankees during the ALCS, though as of right now, it’s unclear who might expect discipline beyond GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch. Regardless, it does seem that the investigation is progressing and disciple of some sort seems likely. Now, let’s get back to winter action and check in on a couple of clubs…

  • Count the San Diego Padres among those teams more focused on shedding contracts than adding them. GM A.J. Preller’s top priority right now is finding a taker for Wil Myers, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Jayson Stark. Myers is due $22.5MM per season for the next three with a $20MM team option for 2023 that comes with a $1MM buyout. That’s a steep payout for a 29-year-old corner outfielder/first baseman who put up just 96 wRC+ last season. The Padres are also looking to move catcher Austin Hedges, who is set to make roughly $2.9MM this year and has two more arbitration seasons remaining. For the second straight offseason, they continue to talk with the Indians about Corey Kluber, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, though a deal on that front before Spring Training is unlikely. They remain curious about Dallas Keuchel and Madison Bumgarner as well, but a deal for any top pitcher seems unlikely unless they find a taker for Myers – which in and of itself presents Preller with a sizable challenge.
  • Charlie Culberson had a couple of major league offers, but none significant enough to outweigh the appeal of returning to Atlanta, per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. The fanbase in Atlanta is quite fond of Culberson, a dirtdog and Atlanta native who plays all over the diamond for manager Brian Snitker. The minor league deal enables the Braves to utilize Culberson’s 40-man roster spot, while incentives in the deal give Culberson similar earning potential to what he’d seen in other offers. Outside of occasional pop, Culberson doesn’t offer a ton with the bat, but he’s a decent baserunner and plays everywhere on the diamond except catcher and centerfield. If nothing else, seeing Culberson return in a Braves uniform would be a heartwarming moment for fans after a brutal injury ended Culberson’s 2019. On a failed bunt attempt at Nats Park, Culberson took a Fernando Rodney fastball to the face that led to a fractured cheekbone. 
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