MLB: Is it tough for GMs to know if their players are cheating?
By Jeff Kallman
Several GMs say they hope to be aware of every last thing in their organizations but can’t always guarantee they can stop MLB’s oldest profession.
When Astrogate turned from time bomb to explosion upon the release of MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s report last month, deposed Houston Astros GM Jeff Luhnow said he didn’t know about the Astro Intelligence Agency’s off-field-based electronic sign espionage and would have stopped it if he had known.
We’ve learned since that Luhnow wasn’t exactly out of the cheating loop, what with the Codebreaker sign-decoding algorithm presented to his office before the AIA went into business. But The Athletic‘s Andy McCullough wanted to know whether MLB GMs would know it if their teams were cheating.
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And he found no few GMs willing to ponder the question.
Kansas City Royals GM told his players two springs ago—in the wake of the Boston Red Sox’s AppleWatch sign-stealing mini-scandal—that he’d rather lose a hundred games than flout the rules. That’d teach him: the 2018 Royals would lose 104 games. But Moore now tells McCullough that actual such oversight could be easier said than done, more or less.
“It’s hard until you put yourself in that situation,” he said. “I can’t say with 100 percent certainty that I would know.”
McCullough popped the question to Moore and other MLB GMs on Tuesday during a Cactus League media session. “All expressed hope they would be able to sniff out an illegal operation,” he writes. “All also admitted there was a chance it could slip through the cracks.”