Major League Baseball will strip the Boston Red Sox of a 2020 second-round draft pick and suspend former manager Alex Cora through the 2020 postseason after completing its investigation into sign-stealing allegations, according to Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic.
Cora was fired by the Red Sox earlier this offseason.
Replay operator J.T. Watkins will also be banned through 2020 and from holding the same title in 2021.
In the case of Cora, his suspension is apparently only a result of his wrongdoing as a ringleader in the Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal in 2017. Cora was the Astros' bench coach at the time and was named manager of the Red Sox that ensuing offseason.
Obviously, Boston's incoming penalties are a bit light as opposed to what Houston just endured.
The Astros were fined the maximum permissible of $5 million as an organization for their actions three years ago and were stripped of first- and second-round draft choices in each of the next two drafts. Plus, manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were each suspended for a year before both being subsequently fired by Houston.
Commissioner Rob Manfred's investigation revealed that Watkins illegally utilized game feeds in the replay room to assist Red Sox players during games. However, Watkins apparently only did this during the 2018 regular season and did not continue doing so during Boston's World Series run in the 2018 playoffs. It also did not occur at all in 2019.
Manfred said that the investigation included 65 witnesses, including 34 current and former Red Sox players. The league also reviewed tens of thousands of emails, text messages, video clips and photographs.
Boston determined that Watkins acted as a “rogue employee.”
Follow Us
Subscribe