MLB suspends Red Sox replay operator for 1 year, docks draft pick as punishment for sign stealing
Major League Baseball on Wednesday suspended Boston Red Sox video replay system operator J.T. Watkins without pay for one year and stripped the team of its second-round pick this year after completing its investigation into allegations the team illegally stole signs during the 2018 season.
Manager Alex Cora is suspended for the 2020 season but only for his role in the Astros' sign-stealing case, when he was the bench coach for Houston, as commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in his report that he does not believe Cora was aware of Watkins' actions.
Manfred wrote in his report that Watkins "on at least some occasions during the 2018 regular season, utilized the game feeds in the replay room, in violation of MLB regulations, to revise sign sequence information that he had permissibly provided to players prior to the game" but his actions, unlike the Astros' scheme, "was farm more limited in scope and impact."
Manfred wrote that that he did not find that Cora, his coaching staff, the front office or most of the players on the team "knew or should have known that Watkins "was utilizing in-game video to update the information that he had learned from his pregame analysis.
Communication of these violations was episodic and isolated to Watkins and a limited number of Red Sox players only."
How can Cora not be aware of what his new team is doing after doing the exact same thing with your previous team last year? It's so obvious that Cora brought these tecniques with him to the Red Sox. They just can't prove it and the replay guy wouldn't rat give him up in the interrogation.
LOL @ losing a 2nd round pick. They'd be more heavily penalized for signing a FA that was given a qualifying offer.
The league's response should (and hopefully will) get roundly criticized.
I also take umbrage with the term of Cora's suspension. "until the end of the 2020 postseason"??? There might not be one, so he could miss no games? Come on, Manfred. That's weak even for you.
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