Houston Astros News & Rumors

12:16pm: Manfred has issued a statement disputing elements of Correa’s account. Per the commissioner, the league decided not to investigate the matter until federal authorities had wrapped up their work. But the league’s Department of Investigations circled back to Correa’s camp last summer (following his guilty plea) to request his cooperation, which was not forthcoming.

Per Manfred:

“On July 21, 2016, Mr. Correa was informed directly that he would be placed on the permanently ineligible list if he did not cooperate with the Department of Investigations. Mr. Correa not only steadfastly refused to answer any questions, but also opposed the release of any documents by the government to the Office of the Commissioner. On August 23, 2016, Mr. Correa’s attorney told the Department of Investigations that Mr. Correa was not interested ‘in providing any information directly or indirectly to MLB.’ The Department of Investigations was not provided evidence to substantiate the other allegations contained in Mr. Correa’s letter, but remains willing to meet with Mr. Correa at any time.”

9:46am: Former Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa, who is currently serving a 46-month sentence for improperly accessing the databases of the Astros organization, has leveled similar charges against the Houston front office via Twitter. His claim comes in the wake of the league’s decision yesterday to punish St. Louis in the form of two draft picks and $2MM (which will go to the Astros as a form of compensation).

According to Correa’s statement, an unidentified member of the Astros organization “accessed proprietary data on a St. Louis Cardinals server” late in 2011. Further, he charges, the Astros utilized the Cardinals’ information “to replicate and evaluate key algorithms and decision tools related to amateur and professional player evaluation.” Most seriously, perhaps, Correa alleges that Houston GM Jeff Luhnow and then-assistant GM David Stearns “were included in e-mail discussions about these efforts.”

Needless to say, these new allegations do not come from an outwardly credible or impartial source. As he acknowledges in his own statement, the apparent support for his allegations was obtained “through unlawful methods.” We’ve yet to see or hear anything regarding actual proof for Correa’s assertions. And the league has given no indication that it has or will investigate the matter, despite Correa saying that he offered to provide commissioner Rob Manfred with information at the time that the scandal broke.

The Astros will not issue further comment at this time, per David Barron of the Houston Chronicle. The organization did release a statement yesterday, saying that it had cooperated fully into the various investigations and emphasizing that it is “pleased to have closure on this issue.” The club stated that it was in support of Manfred’s decision, calling it “a clear message of the severity of these actions.” And Astros general counsel Giles Kibbe recently told Barron and Chronicle colleague Jake Kaplan that, “as we have previously stated, we did not have any of the Cardinals’ proprietary information in Ground Control or our database.”

Those interested in learning more about the background of this matter can find it in MLBTR’s extensive prior coverage. This post lays out many of the key facts that emerged after a federal investigation was undertaken following the public release of proprietary Astros information. Additional information about Correa’s misdeeds was publicized for the first time over the weekend, including his potential role in the public leak and the nature of his access to the Cardinals’ systems.

Major League Baseball has concluded its investigation into the Cardinals’ illegal accessing of the Astros’ proprietary database, ruling that St. Louis will have to send two draft picks to the Astros and pay a $2MM fine to the Astros as punishment, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced on Monday. The Cardinals will lose their top two picks, Nos. 56 and 75 overall, as punishment. Manfred also announced that former Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa, who was fired and sentenced to prison time for accessing the Astros’ database, has been placed on the “permanently ineligible” list, thus banning him from baseball.

The Cardinals had already forfeited their top pick in the 2017 draft in order to sign Dexter Fowler to a five-year contract, and they’ll now be left without any selections in the top two rounds of the draft as a result of commissioner Manfred’s ruling. (The second pick they’re forfeiting is a Competitive Balance, Round B selection.) In addition to losing those two draft picks, the Cardinals will also lost the bonus slots that are associated with those selections.

Via the announcement on the matter, the league’s investigation “did not establish that any Cardinals’ employee other than Mr. Correa (who was the only individual charged by the federal government) was responsible for the intrusions into the Astros’ electronic systems.” As such, there are no penalties to further Cardinals employees (either current or former). Manfred continues to state that he holds the Cardinals organization “vicariously liable for [Correa’s] misconduct,” adding that the Astros “suffered material harm as a result of Mr. Correa’s conduct.” Beyond the loss of proprietary knowledge that Manfred terms “not amenable to precise quantification,” he adds that the Astros “suffered substantial negative publicity and had to endure the time, expense and distraction of both a lengthy government investigation and an MLB investigation.”

Over the weekend, David Barron and Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle reported that documents which were recently unsealed by a federal judge had expedited the investigation and brought the commissioner’s office to the verge of a conclusion. Per the Chronicle duo, Correa accessed the Astros’ “Ground Control” database on 48 instances over a span of two and a half years and also accessed Houston GM Jeff Luhnow’s trade notes on 14 occasions. Beyond that, assistant U.S. attorney Michael Chu believes Correa to have been the responsible party for leaking 10 months’ worth of private trade notes to Deadspin — all of which became available for public consumption back in 2013.

The penalty is certainly not inconsequential for the Cardinals, but it’s already drawn mixed reviews and assuredly will continue to do so. Ben Badler of Baseball America, for instance, tweets that the league stripped the Red Sox of five prospects and imposed a two-year ban on Boston’s ability to sign international prospects last year due to their efforts to circumvent international signing restrictions by signing multiple players in package deals. Meanwhile, the Cardinals will not forfeit so much as a top 50 overall pick in the upcoming 2017 draft.

Nonetheless, the Cardinals will feel the punishment in this summer’s draft. St. Louis already had he second-lowest overall draft bonus pool, checking in at $3,925,500 this year, as Baseball America’s Hudson Belinsky recently reported. Now, they’ll lose pick No. 56 ($1,122,400) and No. 75 ($730,800), thereby dropping their overall pool to $2,072,300 — far and away the lowest in the league. (Cleveland’s $3,646,100 pool is the next-lowest, for context.)

And the Astros, meanwhile, stand to benefit from today’s ruling as well. Houston had a $6,755,100 bonus pool that will now rise to $8,608,300 (also via Belinsky’s figures). That’s certainly a far cry from the 2014 draft, when Houston had two of the top five picks (and three of the top 37) and a whopping $13,362,200 pool. But, the bump to just over $8.6MM does give the Astros the 11th-largest pool in the 2017 amateur draft — a notable bump up from their previous standing of 18th.