On Jan. 13, Major League Baseball (MLB) handed down one of the fiercest punishments in its history. The organization fined the Houston Astros $5 million and stripped the team of future draft picks. General Manager Jeff Luhnow and Manager A. J. Hinch also received one-year suspensions.
But it wasn’t enough.
The punishment came after an investigation by the MLB corroborated allegations that the Astros had illegally stolen signs using video cameras beginning in 2017 — the season they won their first World Series.
Sign-stealing is as much a part of baseball as the peanuts and Cracker Jacks. Teams often analyze pitchers and catchers for “gives,” or physical signals of the incoming pitch. Gives are often revealed by the way the pitcher grips the ball before he throws, or, more obviously, when the catcher fails to conceal the sign.
But the Astros crossed the line. They used video cameras to record signs and sent text messages to managers in the dugout, notifying the bench of the upcoming pitch type. A player would then bang on a trash can to indicate to the batter that an off-speed pitch was on its way. No such bang would occur if fastball were incoming. The Astros wrongfully used technological resources to gain an unfair and unethical advantage over the rest of the league.
They deserved their punishment. And then some.
The fine is the largest amount leviable according to the MLB Constitution, and the Astros forfeited their first- and second-round picks for the 2020 and 2021 drafts. But, this was a crime in which every member of the organization was complicit, and one that affected countless persons who are not on the team.
Firstly, the fine does not affect the Astros’ abilities to sign or trade for players, as it does not count against the organization’s cap room. Secondly, while high-round picks are valuable, they are by no means a guarantee of a high-impact player. Only 66 percent of first-round picks make the Major Leagues, and less than half of all second-round picks make the show.
The Astros weren’t tied down to Luhnow or Hinch, either. The team fired each shortly after they were suspended.
Those most affected by the Astros’ offenses are not in the organization. Instead, most affected are the opposing pitchers whose earned run averages suffered as a result of sign-stealing. The same pitchers had to carry those numbers into free agency meetings, potentially lowering their salaries. It also affected managers like Joe Girardi, who was let go by the New York Yankees after losing in Game 7 of the 2017 American League Championship Series. If the Astros were not stealing signs, perhaps the Yankees would have won and kept Girardi.
How should have the MLB have handled this situation, then? The answer is simple: suspend the entire organization and strip them of the 2017 World Series title. This was a crime committed by the team, but only two Astros — Luhnow and Hinch — were punished. The entire organization, which is fully complicit, should pay the price. In the Black Sox Scandal, the MLB suspended eight members of the Chicago White Sox for life for fixing the 1919 World Series. As a result, game-fixing is mostly unheard of in the MLB.
In the case of the Astros, no player should see the field for at least a year, nor should they be paid. Involved coaches and executives should not be able to manage or preside over a major league organization ever again. They cheated their way into a World Series, too, and should have had any record of their title expunged. Unfortunately, none of this happened.
If the MLB wanted to send a message about cheating, they should have made an example of the Astros.
