MLB Red Sox Report: Rogue Replay Operator Scapegoated As Mastermind Of Sign-Stealing Scheme

A rogue video replay operator was the mastermind behind the Red Sox’ sign-stealing scheme in their 2018 championship season, according to a report from Major League Baseball. The verdict is difficult to comprehend.

While Alex Cora will be suspended for the 2020 season, he is only being reprimanded for his conduct with the 2017 Astros. The report says he, along with the rest of the Red Sox players and coaches, were oblivious to the sparsely used scheme. The Red Sox are also being docked a second-round draft pick.

The Red Sox fired Cora as their manager earlier this year, saying his behavior with the Astors disqualified him from leading the franchise. MLB’s ruling, however, theoretically gives the team leeway to bring Cora back in 2021, since he was exonerated from any subterfuge that occurred in Boston’s dugout under his watch.

Bench coach Ron Roenicke, who was on the staff in 2018, will manage the team this season — assuming there is one.

“As an organization, we strive for 100% compliance with the rules. MLB’s investigation concluded that in isolated instances during the 2018 regular season, sign sequences were decoded through the use of live game video rather than through permissible means,” Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said in a statement, via the Boston Globe. “MLB acknowledged the front office’s extensive efforts to communicate and enforce the rules and concluded that Alex Cora, the coaching staff, and most of the players did not engage in, nor were they aware of, any violations. Regardless, these rule violations are unacceptable. We apologize to our fans and Major League Baseball, and accept the Commissioner’s ruling.”

The harshest discipline falls on replay operator J.T. Watkins, who is suspended for the 2020 campaign and prohibited from manning the replay booth in 20201.

In the 15-page report, commissioner Rob Manfred says he found Watkins acted unilaterally on “at least some occasions” in the 2018 season and violated MLB’s rules surrounding the use of game feeds in the replay room. Apparently, Watkins used the feeds to update the sign sequences he typically relayed to players before games, only providing the updated information when the Red Sox had a runner on second-base. “Watkins communicated sign sequences in a manner that indicated that he had decoded them from the in-game feed in only a small percentage of those occurrences,” the report reads.

Red Sox ownership didn’t comment on the matter at a press conference in mid-January, and maintained that stance throughout Spring Training.

Several notable Red Sox players, including J.D. Martinez and Andrew Benintendi, denied they broke the rules during their World Series-winning campaign. The Red Sox won a franchise record 108 games in 2018.

MLB’s report backs them up, with Manfred writing the conduct was “far more limited in scope and impact” than the Astros’ operation in 2017.

The Astros’ report, meanwhile, says the scheme was “player-driven” and specifically implicates Alex Cora as one of its masterminds. Cora, who served as Houston’s bench coach in 2017, is named 11 times in the report. Carlos Beltran is the only player named, and the Mets fired him as their manager earlier this year. Manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were also suspended for the 2020 season, and dismissed for their roles as well.

It’s worth noting MLB didn’t find Hinch or Luhnow liable for the Astros’ program, either. But they were still suspended, because they failed to control their clubhouse. Interestingly enough, MLB didn’t apply the same logic towards Cora.

There was mass outcry among players at the start of Spring Training directed towards Manfred for his perceived leniency on the Astros. MLB opted to provide players immunity in exchange for testimony, and did not vacate Houston’s 2017 championship. It will be interesting to see if there’s widespread skepticism about the fruits of the Red Sox investigation, since it only implicates a lowly club employee.

In late February, Manfred said he would soon release the Red Sox report, but encountered “unexpected delays.” Those “unexpected delays” halted the report for nearly another two months, and resulted in a finding that amounts to organizational innocence.

We are now left to wonder whether evidence was chased or cleaned up.