Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Mafred fined the St. Louis Cardinals $2 million on Monday and stripped the club of their top two picks in the 2017 Draft as penalty for their hacking of the Houston Astros’ computer system.
In addition, the hacking scandal has resulted in former Cardinals scouting director Christopher Correa on the permanently ineligible list. Manfred explained in the issued statement that no one other than Correa was found responsible for the illegal breach of the Astros’ database.
Separate investigations by the MLB, the Cardinals, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Department of Justice determined that Correa illegally accessed the Astros’ information multiple times from 2013-14.
Correa, who began working for the Cardinals in 2009 and was named the organization’s scouting director in Dec. 2014, was fired in July 2015 as a result of his actions.
He is currently serving a 46-month prison sentence for unlawfully accessing another company’s information, as ruled by the federal government. Correa was also fined $279,038.65 by the court for his actions.
The Astros now hold five draft picks in the top 100, as they will select 15th, 53rd, 56th, 75th and 91st. The Cardinals, on the other hand, hold just one at No. 94. Each team’s allotted draft pool money will be adjusted as a result of the penalties.
The Astros are to receive $2 million in damages within the next 30 days. The penalty is the most severe imposed on an organization in MLB history.
Both teams missed the playoffs in 2016, as the Cardinals finished 86-76 and the Astros had a similar record at 84-78.
