Penalty for St. Louis Cardinals Hacking Case Revealed

According to MLBTradeRumors, the St. Louis Cardinals are sending their top two draft picks from this season to the Houston Astros, and paying a $2MM fine (reported by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch), for the hacking scandal that involved Scouting Director Chris Correa accessing the data base of the Astros data base and the trade notes of Astros’ GM Jeff Luhnow.

No other Cardinals’ official was penalized as the commissioner’s office deemed not other employee was involved in the activity.

Since the Cards had lost their top pick when they signed Dexter Fowler this year, they lose the 56th and 75th picks overall (reported by Buster Olney). They will have no selections in the first two rounds.

The illegal accessing of Houston data took place over a 2½ year period. It would perhaps be appropriate to penalized the Cardinals over the same length of time. It also seems to me that the pick forfeited by signing Fowler should go to Houston, as I think it more than likely the Cardinals knew that they were losing that pick anyways. This avoidance of penalty should not be allowed.

I do like that it isn’t just a forfeiture of picks; that they are going to the Astros and not just into the ether. Considering the potential harm done to the Astros, I don’t think that they have been made whole. I find the $2 mil fine inadequate as well.