Major League Baseball came down hard on Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch for cheating throughout much of the 2017 season, including the playoffs, when the Astros beat the Yankees in the ALCS.
And Houston owner Jim Crane came down harder.
Shortly after MLB announced it had suspended Luhnow and Hinch for the entire 2020 season following its investigation of Houston using electronic equipment to steal signs, Crane fired both, leaving the defending AL champions in turmoil as spring training approaches.
“We accept [MLB’s] decisions and findings and penalties,” Crane said at a press conference Monday afternoon in Houston. “I have higher standards for the city and the franchise, and I am going above and beyond MLB’s penalty. … Today, I have made the decision to dismiss A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luhnow. We need to move forward with a clean slate and the Astros will become a stronger organization because of this today.’’
The stunning move followed what MLB commissioner Rob Manfred vowed last month was “the most thorough investigation that the commissioner’s office has ever undertaken.”
He then handed out heavy penalties, including the Astros forfeiting their first- and second-round draft picks in each of the next two years. The organization will also be fined $5 million.
Alex Cora, Houston’s bench coach in 2017 before becoming Boston manager in 2018, was also heavily implicated in the report, but because MLB is investigating whether he brought the sign-stealing tactics to Boston, Cora has yet to be punished.
Given how stiff the penalties were to Hinch, Cora also figures to at least be in line for a lengthy suspension.
Mets manager Carlos Beltran, who was a playing member of the 2017 Astros, will not be disciplined, despite being the only player named as part of the scheme in the lengthy report.
“I find that the conduct of the Astros, and its senior baseball operations executives, merits significant discipline,” Manfred said in a press release. “I base this finding on the fact that the Club’s senior baseball operations executives were given express notice in September 2017 that I would hold them accountable for violations of our policies covering sign stealing, and those individuals took no action to ensure that the Club’s players and staff complied with those policies during the 2017 Postseason and the 2018 regular season.”
Manfred also made it clear that the Astros continued to use their system after he sent out a memo in September 2017 “reiterating the rules regarding the use of electronic equipment to steal signs, and putting all Clubs on notice that future violations would be taken extremely seriously by my office.”
Yet still, according to MLB, “the Astros continued to both utilize the replay review room and the monitor located next to the dugout to decode signs for the remainder of the regular season and throughout the Postseason.”
That’s when the Astros knocked out the Yankees in seven games in the ALCS. Houston also eliminated the Yankees in six games in last year’s ALCS, although no evidence of Houston cheating in that series has been uncovered.
MLB’s investigation was sparked by allegations made by former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers, now with the A’s, in a report by The Athletic on Nov. 12.
It is believed the Astros used a video system and the banging of garbage cans to tip batters off on the next pitch that was coming.
Manfred said the league interviewed 68 witnesses, including 23 current and former Astros players, some multiple times. He added that the league’s department of investigation also reviewed “tens of thousands of emails, Slack communications, text messages, video clips, and photographs” to determine the extent of the Astros’ sign-stealing.
According to Manfred, the investigation determined that Hinch neither came up with the banging scheme nor participated in it. The manager even “attempted to signal his disapproval by physically damaging the monitor” on multiple occasions.
Still, Hinch took no other steps to stop the schemes from continuing, and according to Manfred, “as the person with responsibility for managing his players and coaches, there simply is no justification for Hinch’s failure to act.”
The commissioner added of Hinch that MLB “must hold him accountable for the conduct of his team, particularly since he had full knowledge of the conduct and chose to allow it to continue throughout the 2017 Postseason.”
Hinch apologized in a statement, saying, “I regret being connected to these events, am disappointed in our club’s actions within this timeline, and I accept the Commissioner’s decision. … While the evidence consistently showed I didn’t endorse or participate in the sign stealing practices, I failed to stop them and I am deeply sorry.’’
After defeating the Yankees in the ’17 ALCS, Houston then downed the Dodgers for the first World Series championship in franchise history.
Luhnow, in a statement, said he accepted, “rules violations that occurred on my watch,’’ but added, “I am not a cheater.’’
Former Astros assistant GM Brandon Taubman, fired in October over inappropriate comments made towards female reporters in the Astros’ clubhouse, also has been placed on baseball’s ineligible list for this season.