Astros rocked by another controversy. This one alleges a high-tech cheating scheme
The report that was the buzz Tuesday at the GM meetings isn’t the first that accused the Houston Astros of illegally stealing other teams’ signs, but it was the most damning to date and left general manager Jeff Luhnow dodging questions.
The Athletic report says that in 2017 the Astros used cameras in center field to steal signs from opposing catchers, relayed them to the dugout and then they were relayed to Houston hitters.
The Astros won the World Series in 2017. They were dogged by accusations of sign stealing then, in 2018 and again last month.
Luhnow was left to answer questions from reporters, but he deferred to a statement from the club saying it was cooperating with an MLB investigation. He stammered through those answers and the few others he didn’t avoid.
In declining to answer questions about what he know, Luhnow indirectly put the responsibility on manager A.J. Hinch.
“I have heard what you all have heard, which is allegations,” Luhnow said. “This isn’t the first one I heard and it’s not the first one you all have heard. Like I said, I think the best course of action is not to speculate right now. We are going to look into it with cooperation of the MLB and we will find out what there is.”
Former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers went on the record with the accusation in The Athletic report, and three sources also acknowledged the scheme. Fiers said that the warned teammates with the Detroit Tigers and Oakland A’s, his teams the past two seasons, about the Astros.
Stealing signs is nothing new in baseball, as base runners often do it from second base and signal them to hitters. Players have also solved the signs opposing third-base coaches flash to hitters and base runners.
However, it is illegal to use technology to steal signs.
“That’s not playing the game the right way,” Fiers said in the report. “They were advanced and willing to go above and beyond to win.”
The latest controversy comes on top of the Astros demoting Reid Ryan as club president last week in favor of owner Jim Crane’s son. As a result Nolan Ryan, Reid’s father, promptly left the team as an adviser.
That came on the heels of a PR disaster involving the club’s handling of insensitive comments former assistant GM Brandon Taubman made toward female reporters regarding the acquisition of closer Roberto Osuna, who was accused of domestic violence by a former girlfriend.
Taubman was fired eventually, but only after the Astros initially issued a strong denial of a Sports Illustrated story on Taubman’s behavior. When Taubman was fired, Luhnow said that he hadn’t been able to find time to apologize to the Sports Illustrated reporter.
She was in the room covering the press conference.
Crane later retracted the initial statement, but only in a private letter to the reporter.
MLB continues to investigate the culture in the Astros’ organization. Luhnow hopes the Astros’ image isn’t tarnished by the issues of the past three weeks.
It might be too late for that.
“I hope it doesn’t,” he said. “We have a lot of great players, we have a really good manager and fan base, and we have accomplished a lot. I think that stands for itself. I’m hopeful we will find out exactly what happened, and we will address it if it needs to be addressed and we can move on.”
