Houston Astros: Manfred zaps “problematic” administrative culture
By Jeff Kallman
Houston Astros: Manfred zaps “problematic” administrative culture
The Astros’ “culture” to which Manfred referred wasn’t exactly an unknown entity prior to Astrogate. The Taubman incident last October—in which the former assistant GM hollered he was so [fornicating] glad the Houston Astros obtained reliever Roberto Osuna before his domestic violence suspension was complete and his legal case resolved, in earshot of women reporters, which the Astros tried to flip so ham-handedly—helped remind people of what was revealed previously by, among others, Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik in The MVP Machine early last year:
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"[M]ost or all of the front office was strongly opposed to that trade, but Luhnow—who had earlier been talked out of drafting Oregon State pitcher and convicted child molester Luke Heimlich . . .—rammed it through regardless, with [owner Jim] Crane’s support. The same pursuit of inefficiencies that prompted the GM and owner to strip-mine the roster and revamp player development convinced them to cross a line that many of their own recruits considered morally reprehensible. “They don’t give a shit, to be honest, what people think about them,” one former Astros staffer says, adding, “Jeff’s gonna do what he wants to do.” Houston has a low threshold, too. Even if public opinion is a secondary concern, internal discord could derail the Astros’ efforts. “I do feel like things on a human level have, sadly, gone downhill since the World Series,” says another source, who felt “disgusted” by Luhnow’s public justifications of the Osuna trade. The constant turnover and clandestine nature of the Astros’ operations also seem to have taken a toll on morale; as one Astros source says, “Slack accounts being deactivated is how anyone knows who’s leaving. Nothing gets announced.”"
When Astrogate first exploded thanks to Astros-turned-Tigers-turned Athletics pitcher Mike Fiers, enough of Astroworld thought at first that it was just another instance of a disgruntled ex who couldn’t cut the mustard in Houston and a whole bunch of know-nothing yahoos seizing on any excuse to disrespect the three-straight American League West winners. Now Fiers sits as baseball’s version of Frank Serpico, the New York cop who blew the whistle on rampant police corruption in the early 1970s. And forget egg, the Astros now sit with omelets on their faces.
This was a team, I wrote early and elsewhere as Astrogate began going supernova, that for three consecutive seasons was sharper than a set of chef’s knives at the plate and in the field. Make the slightest mistake against them and they’d exploit you with mind over and with matter. If you tipped your pitches, they’d sautee you; slip out of position, they’d broil you; hang a breaking ball, they’d slice, dice, and puree you.
Numerous observations have held the Houston Astros started their sign-stealing espionage because they thought a few too many other teams were up to comparable no good. Except that they were so good and so well-rounded and so gifted as a team that they needed their Astro Intelligence Agency about as badly as Richard Nixon needed his CREEPs to break into the Watergate to win re-election in 1972.
Houston Astros owner Jim Crane fired Luhnow and Hinch as soon after the news broke Monday midday about their Astrogate suspensions as he could, seemingly. Crane didn’t exactly concur with Manfred’s assessment about the organizational culture: “I’m losing two key people that are very bright and did a lot of great things here,” adding that firing the pair amounted to “a pretty big housecleaning.”
We still have yet to learn just how much more rampant the Astros’ kind of espionage ran through baseball in the same period. The net result of Soxgate, and the consequences for Houston Astros bench coach-turned-World Series-winning Red Sox manager Alex Cora, haven’t come manifest yet. We don’t even really know yet whether the AIA or the Red Sox’s replay room reconnaissance ring operated their Spy vs. Spy cloak-and-dagger during either team’s October runs to their 2017 and 2018 World Series titles.
Next. Luhnow on Astrogate: "I am not a cheater". dark
The Athletic‘s Evan Drellich said Monday afternoon: “The Astros appear to be starting over.” The full extent of it won’t be known for a good while. There’s still Soxgate to face its own final judgment, too. And who knows how deep a Red Sox housecleaning or even cultural adjustment will have to go?