Boston Red Sox join Astros in sign-stealing scandal

The latest development in the sign-stealing scandal in MLB now implicates the 2018 World Series champion Boston Red Sox. Here’s what we know.

If you thought it was bad that the 2017 Houston Astros blatantly stole signs from opponents and then went on to win the World Series, well things only get worse. As it turns out the 2018 champion Boston Red Sox are now also being implicated in the sign-stealing scandal, according to a report by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich in The Athletic.

This new allegation all stems from the illegal use of replay rooms to determine sign sequences which are then being relayed to hitters via a runner in second base. Apparently, the practice had been going on for quite a while after replay rooms were placed in baseball stadiums.

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These rooms, which are supposed to be used to determine whether a manager would challenge a call on the field or not were also being used to “steal signs.” So much so that MLB fined both the New York Yankees and the Red Sox for such practices during the 2017 season.

After the 2017 season, however, MLB began to institute punishments if these rooms were being used for sign-stealing. And therein lies the rub.

The Rosenthal/Drellich report revealed that the Red Sox continued to use the replay room post-2017, blatantly disobeying baseball’s rules. That season, the Sox dominated baseball, leading MLB in the following offensive categories to name a few:

• AVG = .268
• OBP = .339
• SLG = .453
• wOBA = .340
• Runs = 876

This opens up the question of how baseball figured it would police players from using the replay room to steal signs?

Well, according to the Rosenthal/Drellich report, MLB instituted in-person monitors in these rooms, but how effective is that? Who are these monitors? How can we be assured that they won’t succumb to pressure by teams to look the other way?

In the end, though the Boston Red Sox were wrong in continuing these practices, this falls on baseball’s hands. Rob Manfred and the commissioner’s office failed in effectively enforcing their rules and must do better to make sure that this won’t continue to happen because we all know the Red Sox weren’t the only ones.

It’s only a matter of time before we find out who else.