It was a tough week for Houston sports as they were dealt one blow after another. First, the Texans blew a 24-0 lead in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs to the Kansas City Chiefs and now this. On Jan. 13, Major League Baseball handed out their punishments to the Houston Astros for their involvement in the sign-stealing scandal. For the past three seasons, the Houston Astros had a camera, placed in the outfield, that was able to capture the pitches that the opposing team’s catcher would call. The people watching the camera would relay that information to the Astros dugout where they would then notify the batter of what pitch would come next. They mostly used a loud bang from a trash-can being hit to tell the batter what pitch would come. One to two bangs meant that a breaking ball was coming and no banging meant that the pitcher was throwing a fastball. The Astros have had incredible success the past few seasons, including claiming the 2017 World Series over the Los Angeles Dodgers, so it’s left to wonder how much of their sign-stealing attributed to their success. Nevertheless, once the league found out about this, they declared there would be swift and extensive punishments for the Astros actions against the game.
This past week, Commissioner Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball handed out a steep punishment to the Astros: one-year suspensions for both manager A.J. Hinch and general manager/team executive Jeff Luhnow, a $5 million fine and the stripping their first and second-round draft picks in the 2020 and 2021 draft. The fine is the maximum amount a team can be fined according to the constitution of Major League Baseball. While still unprecedented, it is the least of their concerns as the Astros are valued at $1.75 billion in 2019 (Forbes). The loss of their top two draft picks in the next two drafts will hurt as they will lose out on the top talents available for the next few years. The loss of Hinch and Luhnow are significant to this organization. Hinch is one of the best managers in the league and has been for years now, while Luhnow is one of the architects of the whole roster. He was able to identify and develop all of the talent that has come through the organization, since his arrival in 2011. About an hour after the punishments were handed out, Astros owner Jim Crane fired both Hinch and Luhnow, leaving the team without a manager and general manager a few weeks before spring training starts. Crane’s reasonings behind the firings were, “Neither one of them started this but neither one of them did anything about it.” The Astros face a tough road ahead, and will definitely have an interesting season following the completion of the MLB’s investigation into their sign stealing.
Following the punishments’ release, there were many who felt that the punishment did not fit the crime. People on social media went into a frenzy and called for harsher punishments such as longer suspensions for Hinch and Luhnow as well as player suspensions. Some even called on the MLB to vacate the Astros 2017 World Series title. According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the players and executives of other teams in the league were also disappointed that the punishments were not more severe. At the annual Astros fan festival, this past week, stars Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve spoke out about the punishments. Bregman had little to say, he simply reaffirmed the decisions that were made by the league and the Astros. Altuve vowed that the Astros will overcome this and return to the World Series.
The former Astros bench coach, Alex Cora, suffered a fate similar to that of Hinch. Cora was the one who brought this tactic into the organization and used it to their advantage during the 2017 season. Following their 2017 World Series victory, Cora was named manager of the Boston Red Sox. In his first season in Boston, Cora won back to back titles, this time with the Red Sox and his first as a manager by again defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers. On Jan. 14, a day after the Astros punishments were revealed, Cora was dismissed as the manager of the Red Sox for his involvement, being the second manager to lose his job as a result of this scandal. While Major League Baseball is still investigating the Red Sox for using similar sign-stealing tactics once Cora became the manager, it was reported that Cora would receive a suspension of at least two years for being the mastermind behind it all. While no one else from the Red Sox has lost their job yet, there is expected to be some kind of punishment for the organization once the MLB concludes their investigation into the team. The Red Sox are in a similar position to the Astros without having a manager months before the season starts.
The fallout continued on Jan. 16 when it hit the New York Mets and their newly appointed manager Carlos Beltran. Beltran was a player on the 2017 Astros team who helped the team implement this system. Beltran and the Mets mutually agreed to part ways before he had even managed one game. Beltran was hired on Nov. 1, 2019, as a first-time manager and now becomes the third manager to lose his job due to his involvement with sign-stealing. Beltran is also the second manager in MLB history to never have managed a game after being appointed manager. Back in 2004, Wally Backman was fired four days after he was introduced as the new manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks after failing to disclose prior legal troubles with the organization. The MLB is not investigating the Mets and no one else should lose their job in the Mets organization as Beltran was only brought in this past offseason. But nonetheless, the Mets are stuck in the same position as the Astros and Red Sox scrambling to save their season with so much change happening right before the season.
Most recently, new reports came out saying that some Astros players wore electronic devices on their shoulders that vibrated or shocked the batter a certain amount of times to help them know what pitch was coming. The players allegedly wore them underneath their jerseys and received the shock/vibration while the opposing team’s pitcher was setting up. While not confirmed, there is major speculation about whether this really happened or not. In the 2019 ALCS, Jose Altuve hit a two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth against Aroldis Chapman and the New York Yankees to send the Astros to the World Series. When Altuve rounded third base to head home, he held onto his jersey and signaled to his teammates not to rip off his jersey. It is common to see a player rip off his jersey when they reach home plate after hitting a walk-off home run. Once this report came public and this video of Altuve made the rounds, people were outraged over the possibility that the Astros may have cheated again. Altuve was asked about not wanting to take his jersey off in a post-game interview saying, “I’m too shy… The last time they did that I got in trouble with my wife.” In a statement released by Altuve and his agent Scott Boras this week, the second baseman said, “I have never worn an electronic device in my performance as a major league player.” Following these accusations going public, the MLB released a statement regarding the matter. The league said that during their investigation they had explored Astros players wearing devices but “found no evidence to substantiate it.”
This past week has sent the league and the sports world into chaos. A situation like this has never happened before. Three teams face a tough challenge this upcoming season with untimely changes to their front office and coaching staff. Fortunately, the MLB has set a precedent of what will happen if teams decide to cheat in the future. Hopefully, the rest of the league will take notice and decide to not taint the game any further over fear of a situation like this happening to their team. While the MLB has concluded their investigation of the Houston Astros, we are still waiting for the league to conclude their investigation into the Boston Red Sox. The Astros success will forever be tainted in controversy with only the team knowing how much of their cheating attributed to their success and their World Series championship. The Astros face a tough road ahead to regain respect from the league, the public and from the city of Houston.
Here is a video that shows the tactics the Astros used to steal signs and tell the batters what pitch was coming. You can hear a faint banging before each pitch which was the players in the dugout.
