ST. LOUIS _ Before he began his 46-month prison sentence, former Cardinals executive Chris Correa wrote a statement and asked his family to release it once Major League Baseball had finished its investigation.
He wanted a chance to say in print what he couldn't in court.
The statement, released Tuesday morning by his family on Correa's Twitter address, offers Correa's view of what he labeled "intellectual property theft." He describes how he "through unlawful methods" sought to learn whether the Houston Astros had utilized data and approaches that were proprietary to the Cardinals. The U.S. district court judge in the case had likened Correa's motives to breaking into a neighbor's house "to find out if they were stealing your stuff." The court declined Correa's motions to prove what he describes in his statement.
"I accept responsibility for my wrongful actions and am paying my debt to society," the statement reads, as it was released Tuesday morning on Correa's Twitter address. "The Cardinals organization must now pay a heavy price as well."
Major League Baseball leveled unprecedented punishments against the Cardinals as a result of Correa's illegal access to Houston's internal database. The Cardinals were stripped of their first two draft picks and fined $2 million _ the largest possible, by rule _ and all of that was awarded to the Astros, including the bonus value of those draft picks. Correa was also added to baseball's permanently ineligible list, banned from the game alongside Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and other members of the 1919 White Sox, who allegedly threw a World Series.
Commissioner Rob Manfred determined the Cardinals were "vicariously liable" for Correa's actions, though his staff's investigation into the hacks had the same results as the federal investigation and the Cardinals internal investigation. All three determined the acts were of one employee. No other Cardinal employee, past or present, faced federal charges or punishment from Major League Baseball.
Correa's allegations that Houston used the Cardinals' data are not new, though he is the only official to state them publicly, as he did in court and with his statement.
"The Cardinals were not the organization that benefited from unauthorized access," Correa wrote in the statement. He then details allegations: "On December 11, 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 decision tools related to amateur and professional player evaluation. Many individuals throughout the Houston organization, including the General Manager and Assistant General Manager, were included in e-mail discussions about these efforts."
Correa's statement does not identify the two officials by name.
Attempts by Correa's lawyer to subpoena the mentioned emails from Houston's servers were rejected in court by U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes. Correa's representatives sought them to argue against the requested 46-month prison term.
The commissioner's office issued a response to Correa's letter that details attempts to talk to Correa and also explains why his allegations were not pursued, to this point:
"The Office of the Commissioner made the decision in the spring of 2015 for sound legal reasons to defer its investigation of the incursions into the Astros' systems, including interviewing Mr. Correa and witnesses, as a result of the ongoing criminal investigation being conducted by the FBI and the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas.
"Mr. Correa and potential witnesses were informed of our decision to defer our investigation until the government completed its investigation and any criminal charges against Mr. Correa were adjudicated. Upon the conclusion of the federal investigation, during July and August 2016, the Department of Investigations repeatedly requested Mr. Correa's cooperation through his attorney. On July 21, 2016, Mr. Correa was informed directly that he would be placed on the permanently ineligible list if he did not cooperate with the Department of Investigations. Mr. Correa not only steadfastly refused to answer any questions, but also opposed the release of any documents by the government to the Office of the Commissioner. On August 23, 2016, Mr. Correa's attorney told the Department of Investigations that Mr. Correa was not interested in 'providing any information directly or indirectly to MLB.' The Department of Investigations was not provided evidence to substantiate the other allegations contained in Mr. Correa's letter, but remains willing to meet with Mr. Correa at any time."
When news broke of the federal investigation into illegal entries into Houston's database, "Ground Control," the Post-Dispatch and other media outlets reported that the Cardinals had questions about the similarity between Houston's data and theirs. Some of that was to be expected as Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow and lead analytics exec Sig Mejdal had helped advance the Cardinals' use of data. Their first jobs in baseball were with the Cardinals. An article in the Houston Chronicle in March 2014 described "Ground Control," and several elements of it seemed similar to the Cardinals internal database, known years ago as "RedBirdDog." Such databases were, of course, common, as Cleveland and Boston and other teams also had internal scouting and stat collections that they considered proprietary.
The Cardinals never made a formal complaint to Major League Baseball or the commissioner's office, multiple sources confirmed.
Houston did file a formal request for compensation after Correa pleaded guilty a year ago. That complaint prompted the commissioner to have baseball's Department of Investigations put together the report that became Monday's punishments.
In 2014, after the Chronicle article, the Post-Dispatch asked Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow about the similarities, and Luhnow said he had "to start from scratch."
Houston has maintained that stance throughout the investigations.
"As we have previously stated, we do not have any of the Cardinals' proprietary information in Ground Control or our database," Astros general counsel Giles Kibbe told The Houston Chronicle this past Saturday.
In his report, Manfred stated that Correa did not "provide any cooperation" to baseball's investigators. Correa's statement says he volunteered to talk to the commissioner in 2015, before he admitted guilt and before sentencing. The commissioner had purposefully delayed baseball's formal investigation into the hacking scandal until the federal investigation was complete, the U.S. Attorney had finished its prosecution, and sentencing determined. That was done, in part, to allow for other facts or charges to surface. No charges did.
Major League Baseball wanted to close the matter with its ruling Monday.
Before beginning his prison sentence, Correa gave his family a statement that included a few different paragraphs depending on the outcome of baseball's investigations. Once that was announced Monday, the family was able to use paragraphs Correa wrote to fit the ruling.
"Punishment does not function as a deterrent when sanctions are applied arbitrarily," Correa wrote. "I will have no further comment on this matter while I am incarcerated."
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