Penalties Handed Down On The Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox have been one of the best teams in the league the last few years and they won the World Series back in 2018, but the Red Sox also got caught with their hands in the cookie jar that year as well. In that season, the Red Sox were caught stealing signs by a low-level team employee. I will get to him in a moment. It is a shame that these things continue to happen in MLB. The Houston Astros were caught stealing signs back in 2017, which was the year they won the World Series. The Red Sox were also caught stealing signs back in 2017 via Apple Watch. Just to be clear, stealing signs is not deemed illegal, unless obtained by electronic means.

Back to 2018. J.T. Watkins is the Boston replay operator and he was using game feeds in the replay room to revise sign sequence information that he had permissibly provided to players prior to the game. Watkins has been suspended (without pay) for the entire 2020 season and he will not be allowed in the replay both through the 2021 season as well. The Red Sox will also lose a 2nd Round draft pick in the 2020 MLB Amateur Draft.

Taken from the MLB Findings report:

“I find that unlike the Houston Astros’ 2017 conduct, in which players communicated to the batter from the dugout area in real time the precise type of pitch about to be thrown, Watkins’s conduct, by its very nature, was far more limited in scope and impact. The information was only relevant when the Red Sox had a runner on second base (which was 19.7% of plate appearances leaguewide in 2018), and 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.”

Manager, Alex Cora has also been suspended by the league for the 2020 season, but that is not because of anything he did with the Red Sox. It is due to his role in the 2017 Houston scandal.

“I do not find that then-Manager Alex Cora, the Red Sox coaching staff, the Red Sox front office, or most of the players on the 2018 Red Sox 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. {{/cite)Rob Manfred

Still, Boston did fire Alex Cora for his role in the 2017 scandal and named Ron Roenicke as the interim coach. On Wednesday, the Red Sox removed the interim tag and mad Roenicke their permanent manager. It was expected as Manfred’s report absolved all of Boston’s managerial staff of being involved in sign-stealing, meaning Roenicke had no involvement in the scandal.

Boston president and CEO Sam Kennedy issued the following response to the MLB report.

“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. “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.” Sam Kennedy

Read The MLB’s Full Findings Report

Some Info also gleaned from NESN & MSN Sports