Houston Astros: The Curious Case of Jeff Luhnow
Known as a polarizing executive in MLB, Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow has finally come under fire for his unscrupulous practices. With the GM Meetings set to begin Monday, how will MLB respond to his latest actions?
From the moment St. Louis Cardinals owner Bill Dewitt Jr. brought Jeff Luhnow, a close business associate with zero baseball experience, into the Cardinals organization to be Vice President of Baseball Development, something was amiss.
Moneyball had just hit the shelves two months prior, and Luhnow’s hiring signaled to every one in the Cardinals organization that they were headed in the direction of Michael Lewis’ groundbreaking book. The Cardinals, like the A’s, were about to become baseball’s next data driven organization.
It didn’t take long before heads started rolling within the Cardinals organization. Luhnow, who the New York Times describe as a “polarizing executive,” immediately started to butt heads with people within the Cardinals organization.
Walt Jocketty, who had been the Cardinals GM since 1994 and Jeff Luhnow immediately clashed.
Jocketty operated more like an “old school” GM would while Luhnow was data driven, and despite the fact that the Cardinals won a World Series just one year prior, on October 2007 team owner Bill Dewitt Jr. fired Jocketty.
“I think we had a little different philosophy and vision with respect to some baseball issues,” DeWitt told AP, “There was clearly tension. We couldn’t achieve our goals given what was going on.”
Joecketty wasn’t the only one to fall victim at Luhnow’s expense. You were either with Luhnow or you weren’t, and as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch describes it, “The turf war left a high body count.”
To Luhnow’s credit, he was good at his job as the guy in charge of player development. Under his watch, the Cardinals organization, according to mlb.com, had “the best system record in baseball in 2010 and (won) five minor league championships.” In the same article it states that Luhnow’s “first three drafts from 2005-2007, produced 24 Major League players, which is more than any other Major League team in that time frame.”
Regardless of all the success he had in the Cardinals organization, on December 11, 2011 Jeff Luhnow was announced as the 12th general manager in the Houston Astros history.
Jim Crane Drives a Wrecking Ball Through the Astros Organization
When Jim Crane bought the Astros for $680 million from Drayton McLane in 2011, his intentions were to gut the team and build up the farm system.
That 2011 season, the Astros finished with a 56-106 record, the worst in all of MLB. Their total payroll, according to spotrac, added up to approximately $85.5 million.
That winter, the Astros turned to Jeff Luhnow, who’s time with the Cardinals showed he had an eye for young talent.
Following orders from Crane, Luhnow and the Astros delivered their worst season in franchise history with a 55-107 record. Their payroll that 2012 season dropped to approximately $54.4 million.
In 2013, the Astros finished 51-111. They were considered one of the worst teams in baseball history. Their total payroll? $35.5 million.
The rebuild was in full effect and the genius of it all is that, according to a Dan Alexander piece in Forbes from 2013:
“The Astros are on pace to rake in an estimated $99 million in operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) this season. That is nearly as much as the estimated operating income of the previous six World Series championship teams — combined.”
Meanwhile, Jeff Luhnow is building a juggernaut from the bottom by drafting the likes of Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa and Lance McCullers Jr.
2014 would mark an official new beginning for the Houston Astros, and the real Jeff Luhnow is about to make his debut.
The Hacking Scandal
After experiencing the worst season in franchise history in 2013 and given Jeff Luhnow’s data driven view of baseball, a rift started to build between Astros manager Bo Porter and Luhnow.
On September 1, 2014, Jeff Luhnow decided to fire Porter and bench coach Dave Trembley after a little over a season with the organization. Luhnow made no bones about his decision to fire Porter.
In a statement, Luhnow says:
“What we will seek going forward is a consistent and united message throughout the entire organization. It is essential that as an organization we create an atmosphere at the Major League level where our young players can come up and continue to develop and succeed. Ultimately, I am responsible for creating that culture, and I will do everything in my power to do so — even when it means making difficult moves like the one we made today.”
The following season, In 2015, Jeff Luhnow hired then 40 year old A.J. Hinch. Luhnow stated that Hinch is “well-rounded” and “understands my perspective.” Luhnow liked that Hinch had previous big league experience in the dug out and in the front office.
For the first time in his MLB career, Luhnow found his guy.
His past, however, was out to get him.
In June 2015, Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times reported that the St. Louis Cardinals were under investigation by the FBI for hacking the Houston Astros to steal information about players. The story went on to say that:
“Law enforcement officials believe the hacking was executed by vengeful front-office employees for the Cardinals hoping to wreak havoc on the work of Jeff Luhnow, the Astros’ general manager, who had been a successful and polarizing executive with the Cardinals until 2011.”
In January of 2016, St. Louis Cardinals scouting director Christopher Correa plead guilty to five counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer from 2013 to 2014. He was later sentenced to 46 months in prison.
A year later, Correa sought to release the truth about the whole ordeal. In a statement released by his family on Correa’s twitter account, Correa takes full responsibility for his actions.
Then, he dropped this bomb:
“On Dec. 21, 2011, a Houston Astros employee accessed proprietary data on a St. Louis Cardinals server… Later, I would learn – through unlawful methods – that Cardinals’ data were used extensively from 2012 through 2014. Houston Astros employees used the data to replicate and evaluate key algorithms and decisions tools related to amateur and professional player evaluation.”
The tweet has since been deleted, but the comments were never retracted
Misappropriation of Trade Secrets
First reported on WTTS, according to a complaint filed in Palm Beach County by former MLB pitcher Neiman Nix, Jeff Luhnow along with other members of the Astros organization violated Florida’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act (FUTSA).
A data driven pitching program, Nix’s trade secrets, referred to in the complaint as “The Nix Method,” is a program that enhances a pitchers performance and combats power hitting. It also allows pitchers to throw breaking balls with higher spin rates while keeping them healthy.
Luhnow and his team utilized covert methods to obtain “The Nix Method.” They invited Nix to the Cardinals spring training complex to demonstrate the method; they hired ex employees and students of Nix’s; they even went to his facilities in Washington to see his method in action, and pretended to be interested in purchasing Nix’s motion imaging tracking machine, a tool used to help pitchers in perfect the technique.
According to the New York State Court Filing System, the case status is “deposed, motion pending.”
The McLaughlin Situation the Last Straw?
First reported by Metro Times on October 16, 2018, a man was removed in the third inning of game one of the ALCS between the Astros and the Red Sox in Fenway Park. “The man,” according to Metro Times, “had a small camera and was texting frequently, but did not have a media credential.”
Later, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan reported that the Cleveland Indians had warned the Red Sox about the man in question. Passan also tweeted the following:
Sources: The Indians warned the Red Sox about a man named Kyle McLaughlin taking pictures of their dugout for the Houston Astros. MLB also looked into an August incident in which Oakland alleged an Astros sign-stealing scheme.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 17, 2018
News at Yahoo Sports: https://t.co/P1t6sqhoQc pic.twitter.com/MHEP2yimWC
“This is just the tip of the iceberg with the Astros,” one major league executive told Bleacher Report, “they’ve been doing it for years.”
MLB later cleared the Astros of any wrong doing. According to The Guardian , MLB released a statement saying:
“With respect to both incidents regarding a Houston Astros employee, security identified an issue, addressed it and turned the matter over to the Department of Investigations. A thorough investigation concluded that an Astros employee was monitoring the field to ensure that the opposing Club was not violating any rules… All Clubs remaining in the playoffs have been notified to refrain from these types of efforts and to direct complaints about any in-stadium rules violations to MLB staff for investigation and resolution. We consider the matter closed.”
However, MLB executives have had it with Luhnow, according to Buster Olney’s piece “Next Generation Cheating a Threat to Baseball.” It’ll be interesting to hear what comes out of the GM meetings, which kicks off Monday.
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We’ll keep an eye out on any news that come out of the GM meetings.