Several months after the former scouting director for the St. Louis Cardinals was sentenced to 46 months in jail for hacking into the Houston Astros player database, the final punishment from Major League Baseball has been handed down.
Commissioner Rob Manfred proclaimed Monday the Cardinals would have to send the Astros $2 million and their two highest 2017 draft picks to compensate for the hacking.
That’s a big punishment for St. Louis, which had employed Chris Correa in its front office when he figured out how to break into Houston’s database. He later pleaded guilty to five counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer.
Correa hacked into Houston’s so-called “Ground Control” database dozens of times in 2013 and 2014 to access the confidential data of multiple Astros employees.
He gained access because former Cardinals Vice President Jeff Luhnow had been hired as the Houston general manager and returned a team-owned laptop to the Cardinals. After Luhnow installed Ground Control, which was similar to the in-house database in St. Louis called “Redbird,” Correa gained access to Houston’s database by guessing that Luhnow’s password would be similar to the one he used for the Redbird system.
With that access, Correa looked at confidential notes pertaining to Astros trades and viewed scouting reports for potential future draft picks.
Correa was also permanently banned from baseball. But some believe the Cardinals ultimately got off easy.
It still defies logic that Chris Correa was the only person who knew about his hacking the Astros. Like, what, he kept the info to himself?
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 30, 2017
The St. Louis Cardinals make $300 million a year in revenue. A $2 million fine is 0.67% of that. It is change in their couch.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 30, 2017
The Cards knew. Correa admitted it in court. RT @johnborkowski7 I agree it's logical that more people knew, but is it provable? pic.twitter.com/a0Srb4DjC3
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 30, 2017