According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Jeff Passan of ESPN, Major League Baseball has finalized the punishment for the Houston Astros in the wake of their sign-stealing scandal.
Major League Baseball has now announced the punishment.
GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch will be suspended for the 2020 season without pay. The Astros will also lose their first and second-round draft picks for Major League Baseball’s Amateur Player draft in 2020 and 2021. Additionally, the team will be fined five million dollars.
Furthermore, former Astros executive Brandon Taubman, has also received a one-year suspension from Major League Baseball for shouting offensive comments at a group of female reporters after the Astros clinched the 2019 ALCS.
If Hinch or Lunhow break any more rules that are enforced by Major League Baseball, they will face a lifetime ban.
Notably, no players will be disciplined for their actions in their scandal, including current Mets skipper Carlos Beltran. That being said, Major League Baseball has come to the conclusion that the sign-stealing actions were mainly player-driven.
For the MLB, this concludes a months-long investigation into the Houston organization. Houston undertook an illegal strategy that involved stealing catcher’s signals via a camera in center-field and banging a trash can in the dugout to warn the batter of an incoming off-speed pitch. These actions took place from 2017 to 2019. In that time span, the Astros enjoyed a World Series championship and two ALCS berths.
Major League Baseball is currently investigating the Red Sox for their own sign-stealing scandal. Passan adds that punishment for Red Sox’s manager Alex Cora is expected to be harsh.
