After a lengthy investigation into the Boston Red Sox sign-stealing scandal from the 2018 season, Commissioner Rob Manfred has finally announced his findings. All things considered, the Red Sox punishment for whatever took place in 2018 was not particularly stiff.

According to a report by the Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drelich, the Red Sox penalties include a second-round pick in the upcoming MLB Draft, as well as the ban of a replay operator and former manager Alex Cora.

Cora was let go back in January, following the initial fallout from the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal, for which he was their bench coach in 2017. Cora was then hired by the Red Sox in 2018 and led them to a World Series victory in his first season.

The findings from Manfred’s investigation don’t illustrate as elaborate of a sign-stealing operation in Boston as the one from Houston, but foul play took place nonetheless.

Manfred’s report indicates that the investigation included interviews with 65 witnesses, including 34 current and former Red Sox players, as well as reviews of tens of thousands of emails, text messages, video clips and photographs. His findings pin a majority, if not all, the blame on replay operator J.T. Watkins, who has been banned through 2021.

Watkins is said to have violated the rules by using the live-feed from the replay room to decode signs and relay that information to Red Sox players. Manfred came to the conclusion that those signs were only relayed to players from runners on second base, unlike the Astros who banged on a trash can to decode signs in the middle of at-bats.

In regards to Cora and a majority of the Red Sox player, Manfred said the following in his press release.

“I do not find that then-Manager Alex Cora, the Red Sox coaching staff, the Red Sox front office, or most of the players on the 2018 Red Sox knew or should have known that Watkins was utilizing in-game video to update the information that he had learned from his pregame analysis. Communication of these violations was episodic and isolated to Watkins and a limited number of Red Sox players only.”

Manfred essentially absolved the coaching staff and the players of any wrongdoing, with Cora’s one-year ban being a result of his time with the Astros, rather than from his transgressions in Boston. At the same time, Manfred spoke rather glowingly about the Red Sox front office and their efforts in preventing sign-stealing.

“Red Sox front office consistently communicated MLB’s sign-stealing rules to non-player staff and made commendable efforts toward instilling a culture of compliance in their organization.” Manfred explained in his release.

Essentially Manfred’s entire investigation boils down to implicating Watkins as the only responsible party in whatever cheating that may have taken place. Watkins vehemently denied any wrongdoing, but was still proven to be guilty through the investigation.

With that being said, the Red Sox were still punished by having to forfeit their second-round pick, as they benefited from Watkins actions. As Manfred notes in his report, this penalty is made more significant due to the uncertain circumstances surrounding the upcoming draft.

“I am mindful that because the 2020 First-Year Player Draft may be as few as five rounds, this penalty may have a more significant impact on the Red Sox than in a normal year.” Manfred said.

No one will ever know exactly what went on in the Red Sox clubhouse during the 2018 season. At the end of the day, they won their ninth World Series title. If they bent the rules to make that happen, clearly the punishment was worth it.