Major League baseball handed down punishment to the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday after an investigation into alleged sign stealing during the championship 2018 season. Former manager Alex Cora was also suspended for sign stealing conduct when he was a bench coach for the Houston Astros in 2017.
Video replay system operator J.T. Watkins was suspended without pay through the entire 2020 season including postseason, and the team was also stripped of a second round draft pick this year. “Unlike the Houston Astros’ 2017 conduct, in which players communicated to the batter from the dugout area in real time the precise type of pitch about to be thrown, Watkins’ conduct, by its very nature, was far more limited in scope and impact”, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said, “The information was only relevant when the Red Sox had a runner on second base (which was 19.7% of plate appearances leaguewide in 2018), and Watkins communicated sign sequences in a manner that indicated that he had decoded them from the in-game feed in only a small percentage of those occurrences. Communication of these violations was episodic and isolated to Watkins and a limited number of Red Sox players only. 11 witnesses identified features of Watkins’ in-game communications that indicated to them that Watkins had at times acquired the sign sequence information from the replay room during the game.” Manfred went on to say six witnesses claimed that they observed Watkins writing signs during games, and four said they saw him use gestures or notes to communicate signs when a video-room monitor was present, which made them think he was trying to conceal prohibited conduct. In addition to his suspension, Watkins is also banned from working in the replay room at all in the 2021 season and postseason as well.
Cora, who mutually parted ways with the team in January amid the alleged investigations, will be suspended also the entirety of the 2020 season but only for his conduct as the Houston bench coach the league said. Baseball Commissioner Manfred said he doesn’t believe Cora was aware of the actions of Watkins, and will not impose any additional discipline.
Cora said Wednesday that he is relieved that the investigation is concluded, and went on to say, “I am grateful for the Commissioner’s thoughtful and thorough investigation relating to my conduct as Red Sox manager. I also take full responsibility for the role I played, along with others, in the Astros’ violations of MLB rules in 2017. The collective conduct of the Astros’ organization in 2017 was unacceptable, and I respect and accept the Commissioner’s discipline for my past actions.”
Boston CEO Sam Kennedy said that the 2018 championship is not tainted, but the actions of his team is still unacceptable. “I want to be very clear that any violation of Major League Baseball’s rules is unacceptable,” Kennedy said. “Earlier this afternoon, [owner] John Henry and [chairman] Tom Werner had the opportunity to address Commissioner Manfred and the 29 other Major League Baseball owners on a call, and John and Tom took full responsibility and apologized to those guys for what happened. We accept the findings in the report, and Major League Baseball conducted the interview. It was exhaustive and thorough, and it found that [Watkins] engaged in the conduct described in the report and with a limited group of players. That’s really all we can say, given that it was baseball’s conclusion and their report.”
After the results of the investigation were released, the Red Sox removed the interim tag from manager Ron Roenicke who was chosen to replace Cora in February. With Cora acquitted of no wrong doing in Boston, that could clear the way to a return to the organization in 2021. However, Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom indicated that won’t happen. “We said at the time we parted ways with Alex, we were clear that was the result of his role in what happened with the Astros and everything that happened with the investigation over there revealed and had nothing to do with what may or may not have occurred in Boston, and that is still the case,” Bloom said. “All of the reasons that we parted ways then are still the case.”
