Houston Astros sign stealing scandal
The Houston Astros sign stealing scandal was a major scandal in Major League Baseball (MLB) that broke in November 2019, in which several members of the Houston Astros were caught and disciplined for illegally using a video camera system[1] to steal signs from opposing teams during games in 2017 and 2018.
For years, some people on other teams had suspected the Astros of stealing signs. However, there was no public reporting of the Astros' sign stealing until a bombshell report in November 2019, when reporters Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich at The Athletic published an article detailing the team's activities. Mike Fiers, a pitcher who played for the Astros in 2017, told The Athletic that the organization used a video camera in the center field seats to observe the opposing catcher as he instructed the pitcher about the next pitch. Astros players or team staffers watching the live camera feed behind the dugout used various audio cues, such as banging on a trash can, to tell the batter what type of pitch was coming next. An MLB investigation confirmed in January 2020 that the Astros illegally used a camera system to steal signs during the 2017 regular season and postseason, during which they won the World Series, as well as in part of the 2018 season, in which they lost the American League Championship Series to the Boston Red Sox. MLB found no evidence of illicit sign stealing in the 2019 season, in which the Astros advanced to the World Series, but lost in seven games to the Washington Nationals.
The sanctions against the Astros were the most severe that MLB has ever issued against a member club[2] and are among the most severe sanctions for in-game misconduct in baseball history.[3] MLB levied the maximum $5 million fine on the Astros and stripped them of their first- and second-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts. The league suspended Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and field manager A. J. Hinch for the 2020 season for failing to prevent the rule violations; the Astros fired both men on the day their punishment was announced.[4] MLB's investigation also determined that Red Sox manager Alex Cora helped mastermind the Astros' sign-stealing while serving as Hinch's bench coach in 2017. MLB suspended Cora through the 2020 postseason; he left the team but was rehired after his suspension ended. Carlos Beltrán was the only Astros player from 2017 named in the report; he had been hired to manage the New York Mets in November 2019 but parted ways with the team after the results of MLB's investigation were announced. No players were punished; MLB had granted them immunity in exchange for their cooperation. The Astros retained their 2017 World Series championship title.[5]
A Wall Street Journal article published a few weeks after the MLB report revealed new details about the sign-stealing operation, including that it originated during the 2016 season. After the scandal broke, players on the 2017 Astros apologized to varying degrees. The team's actions were heavily criticized by players on other MLB teams. The scandal dominated the 2019–2020 offseason and the start of 2020 spring training.[6] The scandal also led to lawsuits against the Astros and MLB.
Continued accusations[edit]
The report and discipline did not stop additional accusations of sign stealing from being made. The release of the report sparked a new frenzy of speculation and rumors on the internet in the week afterward.[69] A Twitter account of a person claiming to be Beltrán's niece made accusations about non-Astros players around the league; Beltrán's family said the account was fake and some speculated that it actually belonged to a player.[70] Rumors again circulated that Astros players were wearing buzzing electronic devices during the 2019 playoffs that would relay a stolen sign through vibrations, as originally speculated in a report in the New York Post. Jose Altuve released a statement through his agent stating, "I have never worn an electronic device in my performance as a major league player."[71] A few days later in a media appearance, Altuve said "some people made that up...the best thing that happened to me was that MLB investigated it and found nothing."[72] Josh Reddick called internet speculation that he was wearing a buzzing device "ridiculous",[73] and Alex Bregman called the buzzer rumors "stupid".[74]
Reactions[edit]
Astros reactions[edit]
Josh Reddick was the first Astros player made available to speak to the media after the report, and he told reporters, "It stinks for everybody involved" and, "When everyone feels the time is right, it will get taken care of."[73] Bregman and José Altuve appeared before the media at the Astros annual fan festival in Houston the week the report was released. Bregman answered repeated attempts by reporters to have him address the scandal with variations of the same phrase: "The commissioner made his report, made his decision and the Astros made their decision and I have no further comment on it."[75][76] Altuve was more talkative but said it was too early to comment, saying, "I think the time to comment about that will come," while vowing that the Astros would return to the World Series.[77]
After Bregman's and Altuve's comments were criticized, Crane promised that the team would hold a press conference at spring training when all the players were together to "apologize for what happened, ask for forgiveness and move forward."[78] At the 2019 Baseball Writers' Association of America banquet, Justin Verlander, in his acceptance speech for winning the 2019 AL Cy Young Award, said of the Astros "as everybody knows, they're very technologically and analytically advanced", prompting a mix of boos and laughter from the audience.[79]
Subsequent revelations[edit]
On February 7, 2020, Jared Diamond of The Wall Street Journal published a report of previously undisclosed details uncovered by the MLB investigation, drawn from a letter sent by Manfred to Luhnow on January 2, 2020, that was obtained by the Journal and interviews with sources.[138] According to the article, the sign stealing scandal originated in September 2016 when an intern named Derek Vigoa, who later became the Astros senior manager for team operations, gave Luhnow a PowerPoint presentation on what he called "Codebreaker", a Microsoft Excel-based program used by front office staff to log and decode opposing catchers signs and then communicate them to baserunners who would relay them to hitters. The report said Codebreaker was enhanced in June 2017 when the trash can scheme was developed. The report also said that Codebreaker was used both at home and on the road and Astros personnel continued to use it into the 2018 season. The sign-stealing operations were referred to as "dark arts" within the Astros front office.[139]
Diamond's report quoted emails from Luhnow and Astros employees who said Luhnow was not only aware of but also enthusiastic about the sign stealing operations, even though he denied knowledge of them to MLB and in public statements.[140] In a subsequent Journal article, Diamond quoted an email sent by an Astros employee named Tom Koch-Weser to his colleagues which read, "'I don't want to electronically correspond too much about 'the system' but Cora/Cintrón/Beltrán have been driving a culture initiated by Bregman/Vigoa last year and I think it's working,' Koch-Weser wrote. 'I have no proof that it has worked, but we get real good dope on pitchers tipping and being lazy. That information, if it's not already, will eventually yield major results in our favor once players get used to the implementation.'"[141] The article also quotes Manfred's January 2 letter to Luhnow as saying, "'Most or all Astros players were active participants in the Banging Scheme by the conclusion of the 2017 World Series. ... The Banging Scheme was so prevalent,' Manfred wrote, 'that witnesses regularly describe that everyone in and around the Astros dugout was presumptively aware of it.'"[141] In a February press conference, Manfred sarcastically "congratulated" Diamond, saying, "You know, congratulations. You got a private letter that, you know, I sent to a club official. Nice reporting on your part."[142]
On February 11, 2020, Rosenthal and Drellich published an article in The Athletic, drawing from interviews of six unnamed members of the 2017 Astros, which portrayed Beltrán as the leader of the clubhouse and the ringleader of the electronic sign stealing system.[143] According to the article, "small groups of Astros discussed their misgivings" with the system, and catcher Brian McCann at one point asked Beltrán to stop. One player said, "He disregarded it and steamrolled everybody. Where do you go if you're a young, impressionable player with the Astros and this guy says, 'We're doing this'? What do you do?"[144]
Efficacy[edit]
A thorough study, presented in a long article in The Ringer, concluded that there was no evidence that being informed of the nature of the pitch just before it is thrown actually helps the hitter. The article addressed prior situations of teams illegally stealing signs, such as the 1951 New York Giants, but did its deepest dive on the 2017 and 2018 Houston Astros. It found that the Astros' alleged ringleader Carlos Beltran seemed not to benefit at all, and while it may have helped one of his teammates, Marwin Gonzalez, the overall statistics show that it did not help the team's hitters.[170] A study in Baseball Prospectus reached a near-identical conclusion, showing that the Astros gained "no runs at all" from the scheme.[171] A study done by two researchers at Duke University, while less comprehensive, concluded as well that the Astros did not benefit. The study focused on results at home versus those on the road.[172]