The conclusion of the federal investigation into St. Louis Cardinals' alleged hacking of the Houston Astros' database could be on the horizon.
"I'm hopeful that that situation will be taken care of during the offseason," said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, per Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle. "The timing, however, is not completely within our control. Obviously we're playing second fiddle to the U.S. Attorney here, as it should be. And we'll have to be driven to some extent by their timing."
Back in June, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began looking into whether any member of the Cardinals organization violated federal law by stealing proprietary information from the Astros.
"The FBI aggressively investigates all potential threats to public- and private-sector systems," said an FBI spokeswoman at the time, per Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times. "Once our investigations are complete, we pursue all appropriate avenues to hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace."
In July, the Cardinals fired scouting director Chris Correa. According to Robert Patrick and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Correa admitted to accessing the Astros' database but denied his aim was to steal information from Houston, rather to see if the Astros stole proprietary information from the Cardinals.
The scandal presents a tough situation for MLB since nothing quite like this has happened before between competing teams. Bleacher Report's Scott Miller argued the league couldn't afford to let the Cardinals off easy should they be found to have engaged in a "widespread, organized effort" to access the Astros' servers:
FanGraphs' Nathaniel Grow analyzed each of the different scenarios for Manfred to discipline the Cardinals, including handing them a postseason ban, taking away draft picks or fining the Cardinals a $2 million fine—the most allowed under the MLB constitution.
Not only would a postseason ban be unfair for the players, who almost certainly had no role in the scandal, it would violate the collective bargaining agreement, Grow asserts.
As a result, some combination of a fine and draft pick forfeiture makes the most sense. Stripping St. Louis of multiple draft picks would hurt the team at an organizational level without jeopardizing the careers of the team's major league roster.
Other teams would also be wary to engage in similar espionage tactics if they knew they were risking one or more high draft selections.
Manfred is likely waiting until the FBI's investigation concludes to issue any punishments to the Cardinals or any team employees implicated in the scandal.
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