Move over Houston, you may have some company.
On Tuesday, Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic obtained information from three anonymous sources alleging that the Boston Red Sox used their video electronics room, which is close to their dugout at Fenway Park, to aid in stealing signs during the 2018 season.
The Red Sox won 108 games in 2018 along with their tenth World Series title. The replay room was unguarded during the 2018 regular season, and players could saunter in and out at their leisure. During the playoffs and the subsequent 2019 season, MLB put a halt to this by instituting an in-person monitor in the replay room.
This is the second such allegation of sign stealing this offseason, with the Houston Astros being accused this past November. The Astros are accused of using a center field camera that fed into a monitor near the dugout. Players would then bang a garbage can to alert the batter of the upcoming pitch. This practice peaked in 2017 when the Astros won the World Series.
Interesting, Alex Cora was the bench coach of the 2017 Astros and the manager of the 2018 Red Sox and is an obvious common thread in the allegations.
The Red Sox system was a bit different. The report said players would wander into the unguarded replay room during regular season games to decipher opponents’ sign sequences. That information would be relayed to a runner on second base. The runner would signal to the hitter whether the incoming pitch was a fastball — right foot off the bag first — or an off-speed offering — left foot first. This system, according to The Athletic, only worked with a runner on second or sometimes first.
Boston is not exactly new to all of this. In 2017, as part of the infamous Apple Watch scandal, the players were fined and the organization given an implicit warning that, going forward, using video to steal signs would be dealt with harshly. This new report also comes in the wake of Rob Manfred saying in November he felt the sign-stealing scandal did not extend beyond the Houston Astros.
Major League Baseball said in response to The Athletic’s report, “the Commissioner made clear in a September 15, 2017 memorandum to clubs how seriously he would take any future violation of the regulations regarding use of electronic equipment or the inappropriate use of the video replay room. Given these allegations, MLB will commence an investigation into this matter.”
Rosenthal later reported the Red Sox will fully cooperate with the investigation saying, “we were recently made aware of allegations suggesting the inappropriate use of our video replay room. We take these allegations seriously and will fully cooperate with MLB as they investigate the matter.”
Rosenthal and Drellich also wrote that it’s highly possible that other teams used their replay room in a similar situation as did the Red Sox although substantive proof is not presently available. The likelihood is, however, that this investigation is a lot closer to its nascent stages than its conclusion. Stay tuned.
