Source: Alex Cora, Houston’s bench coach in 2017 and the Red Sox’s manager since 2018, is heavily implicated throughout the report. He’s said to have called down to the video room to get signs early in 2017, which constitutes improper usage of a dugout phone, and he is also the only non-player mentioned by name who had a role in devising the garbage can system.
“Cora was involved in developing both the banging scheme and utilizing the replay review room to decode and transmit signs. Cora participated in both schemes, and through his active participation, implicitly condoned the players’ conduct,” the report says. The Red Sox are currently under investigation for a 2018 sign-stealing scheme in and Cora’s punishment will be announced at a later date.
As part of the fallout from the league’s report on the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, Cora was fired by the Red Sox on Tuesday. The league’s investigation into the Red Sox’s own sign-stealing scheme during their 2018 championship season is still ongoing. Cora’s managerial career may be over, but he still awaits his punishment from the league. Our staff discussed Cora’s likely punishment from his involvement in sign-stealing scandals with two separate teams.
We all knew that an Astros coach or two (at least) had to have been involved in this cheating scandal, but now we know that Alex Cora is the guy.
Alex Cora really deserves a lifetime ban. He lacks the integrity that’s required of any person employed by Major League Baseball. He clearly will do whatever it takes to win…and who knows where it would’ve stopped? I’m surprised some backroom video intern hasn’t turned up dead because of this whole situation, so Cora could cover up his tracks. Obviously I’m joking, but it just seems like the kind of thing he would do based on his moral standards. Since it turns out he was the most senior person in the organization to conspire with the players in the scandal, of course he wasn’t able to stop once he left Houston. He went on to manage the Red Sox the following season and continued his cheating ways there.
Just a reminder that all this takes place after Manfred’s statement (because of Red Sox and Yankees cheating) in 2017 that “All 30 clubs have been notified that future violations of this type will be subject to more serious sanctions, including the possible loss of draft picks”. Cora valued winning over the integrity of the game and disrespected everyone in the league office when he continued to break the rules. It just goes to show that there is no reason he should be allowed back in the league after this.
And listen, A.J. Hinch isn’t innocent here either. While Axisa went on to note that “Hinch went so far as to damage monitors”, shows that he did disapprove of the cheating. But, where he is at fault is that he did nothing further to put an end to it. Therefore, his suspension is still warranted.
However, it’s also players like Brian McCann, a noted “play the game the right way” type of guy, Justin Verlander, who has been vocal in the past about players that test positive for PED’s, and that smug fuck Alex Bregman that really make the organization look like a bunch of paradoxical conniving pricks.
It’s always the guys that are extremely outspoken against a specific topic (cheating in this case) that are actually the shittiest people. Brian McCann got mad at Jose Fernandez for pimping his first career home run (as a rookie) a little lol what a punk. And I never really had a reason to hate Alex Bregman besides the fact that he was a good, which is out of respect, until now…which I’m kinda happy about? He seemed like a dick even back in his LSU days, so now that he played a legitimate role in robbing the Dodgers of their first championship in 29 years, I have an actual reason to hate him.
And if I failed to express how ridiculous it was that the Astros didn’t have their 2017 World Series title taken away in my last blog, then this Bill Plaschke article from the LA Times should do.