Rosenthal: Astros to lose two 1st round picks, Luhnow, Hinch suspended for year for sign stealing scandal

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The penalties, according to sources with knowledge of Manfred’s decision, include:
• A one-year suspension for general manager Jeff Luhnow.
• A one-year suspension for manager A.J. Hinch.
• The forfeitures of first- and second-round draft picks in both 2020 and ’21.
• A fine of $5 million, the maximum allowed under MLB’s constitution.
• The placement of former Astros assistant GM Brandon Taubman on baseball’s ineligible list.
On Nov. 12, The Athletic reported that the Astros stole signs during regular-season home games in 2017 with the aid of a center-field camera. The next day, The Athletic reported that Alex Cora, the team’s bench coach at the time, was a mastermind of the team’s sign-stealing scheme.
Discipline for Cora will be determined after baseball completes its investigation of the Red Sox for separate sign-stealing allegations that occurred while Cora was the team’s manager in 2018, as reported by The Athletic last week.

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[WuTang_OG]

Lol weak suspensions.

MLB should be embarrassed. Basically a slap on the wrist. They cheated their way to a title and get to take a year off. What a joke.

Should have been a 5 year ban and retracted the championship. No body would even think of trying to cheat every again if they did that.

[Fairview4Life]

Lol weak suspensions.

MLB should be embarrassed. Basically a slap on the wrist. They cheated their way to a title and get to take a year off. What a joke.

Should have been a 5 year ban and retracted the championship. No body would even think of trying to cheat every again if they did that.

They were just fired, will probably be tough to get another job for years, if at all.

[Schad]

The Astros lost $5m in cash, picks worth $20m+ in value, the GM and coach have been fired and banned from baseball for a year, plus Alex Cora's apparently in for an even longer suspension. I'd consider that a suitably harsh punishment; they were never going to cancel a title.

[WuTang_OG]

Lol weak suspensions.

MLB should be embarrassed. Basically a slap on the wrist. They cheated their way to a title and get to take a year off. What a joke.

Should have been a 5 year ban and retracted the championship. No body would even think of trying to cheat every again if they did that.

They were just fired, will probably be tough to get another job for years, if at all.

And the organization got a slap on the wrist. Won a championship by cheating. Not a good look for the league. Should have been a harsher punishment.

[phillipmike]

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Cora is still under investigation with the Red Sox cheating scandal. He might get the axe too when it is all said and done.

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[WuTang_OG]

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[WuTang_OG]

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Cora is still under investigation with the Red Sox cheating scandal. He might get the axe too when it is all said and done.

I wonder if Red Sox can do any less with Cora. I'd think he's a goner as well.

[Sedale Threatt]

The Astros lost $5m in cash, picks worth $20m+ in value, the GM and coach have been fired and banned from baseball for a year, plus Alex Cora's apparently in for an even longer suspension. I'd consider that a suitably harsh punishment; they were never going to cancel a title.

I don’t know ... agree about the championship. But I think if you’re in a leadership position, and you knew and/or facilitated something like this, especially after the commissioner sent out that warning, I think you’ve pretty much sacrificed your privilege to be involved in the sport at this level. Pete Rose has been banned for 30-plus years for betting on games, and rightfully so. But I think you can argue that this was at least in the same ballpark. They were actively manipulating games, and very possibly the outcome of a championship. Nothing is more sacred than that.

[phillipmike]

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[Schad]

I don’t know ... agree about the championship. But I think if you’re in a leadership position, and you knew and/or facilitated something like this, especially after the commissioner sent out that warning, I think you’ve pretty much sacrificed your privilege to be involved in the sport at this level. Pete Rose has been banned for 30-plus years for betting on games, and rightfully so. But I think you can argue that this was at least in the same ballpark. They were actively manipulating games, and very possibly the outcome of a championship. Nothing is more sacred than that.

I think that there are two primary differences between this and the Braves' IFA scandal, which resulted in a lifetime ban.

The first is that it's somewhat diffuse...there isn't one individual that you can point at as the primary culprit, but rather a whole bunch of players/coaches/execs who bear some culpability. So they've opted to hold the team itself responsible alongside those who oversaw it, and the penalty for the team is pretty stiff; the value of those picks in he modern era is huge.

The second is that, while MLB told teams to cut it out, there was probably an upper bound for how firmly they could punish teams given that this was previously a slap on the wrist offense. They'd made clear that they'd come down hard on teams in the future, and this is pretty hard. But escalating straight to lifetime bans when the Red Sox previously got a six-figure fine wasn't likely to be in the cards. I'd imagine any further sign-stealing schemes of this nature will see the nuclear option, however.

[vaff87]

How the hell can Luhnow deny having any awareness? There is zero chance that was the case.

[Schad]

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[agkagk]

At least one of them will be blacklisted.

I suspect luhnow is history.

Hinch can probably sneak in the back door similarly to bonds and McGuire becoming hitting coaches.

[agkagk]

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To paraphrase the movie casino:

He was either in on it or he was too dumb to see it. Either way he’s a liability.

[Sedale Threatt]

I don’t know ... agree about the championship. But I think if you’re in a leadership position, and you knew and/or facilitated something like this, especially after the commissioner sent out that warning, I think you’ve pretty much sacrificed your privilege to be involved in the sport at this level. Pete Rose has been banned for 30-plus years for betting on games, and rightfully so. But I think you can argue that this was at least in the same ballpark. They were actively manipulating games, and very possibly the outcome of a championship. Nothing is more sacred than that.

I think that there are two primary differences between this and the Braves' IFA scandal, which resulted in a lifetime ban.

The first is that it's somewhat diffuse...there isn't one individual that you can point at as the primary culprit, but rather a whole bunch of players/coaches/execs who bear some culpability. So they've opted to hold the team itself responsible alongside those who oversaw it, and the penalty for the team is pretty stiff; the value of those picks in he modern era is huge.

The second is that, while MLB told teams to cut it out, there was probably an upper bound for how firmly they could punish teams given that this was previously a slap on the wrist offense. They'd made clear that they'd come down hard on teams in the future, and this is pretty hard. But escalating straight to lifetime bans when the Red Sox previously got a six-figure fine wasn't likely to be in the cards. I'd imagine any further sign-stealing schemes of this nature will see the nuclear option, however.

Yeah, reading up on stuff -- I hadn't been paying too close attention -- it sounded like this was largely player-driven. It's unfortunate none of them were punished, but I guess that had to do with the wording of that warning, and the fact that it would have been impossible to determine the exact extent to which each individual participated. I guess Hinch even tried to destroy the monitor they used a couple of times. Watching a clip of one particular instance, you have to wonder how much it even helped; you're talking about maybe a split-second between the signal and the delivery.

But circling back to the players, it's too bad they're all going to skate because that was a sh*tty, sh*tty thing to do. Got to give it to baseball. When they cheat, they go big. As such, the punishment still feels a little light to me. Maybe they could have barred the Astros from participating in a couple of free agencies, like they do in soccer.

[WuTang_OG]

How the hell can Luhnow deny having any awareness? There is zero chance that was the case.

Talk about a guy who violated, then didnt own it and instead threw people under the bus to try and save his integrity.

Get lost dude