ST. LOUIS _ The illegal actions of a former St. Louis Cardinals executive that put him in prison will also cost the team draft picks and a punitive fine in one of the harshest penalties enforced by Major League Baseball in recent memory.
And the Houston Astros will directly benefit.
In a decision issued Monday afternoon by commissioner Rob Manfred, the Cardinals have been fined $2 million in damages _ possibly the largest ever for one team _ and their first two picks in the coming draft have been taken away as a result of an illegal hack into Houston's database. The two picks, Nos. 56 and 75, will go to the Astros, as will the slot money assigned to those picks. The $2 million fine will also be paid to the Cardinals' former division rivals.
A year ago, Chris Correa pleaded guilty to five counts of illegal entry into the Astros' internal database, "Ground Control." Correa was sentenced to 46 months in prison.
The commissioner's decision also bans Correa from returning to baseball. He has been placed on the permanently ineligible list, the same one that includes Pete Rose.
No other individual was punished in the decision.
The commissioner's office did not find any other member of the Cardinals staff, present or former, who was a part of Correa's actions. Though the commissioner, in his forthcoming decision, ruled that the Cardinals benefited from Correa's actions and that the club, as a whole, was "liable for his misconduct."
"We respect the commissioner's decision and appreciate that there is now a final resolution to this matter," Cardinals Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said in a statement issued by the team. "Commissioner Manfred's findings are fully consistent with our own investigation's conclusion that this activity was isolated to a single individual."
The Cardinals have 30 days to pay the fine.
As a result of signing free-agent Dexter Fowler, the Cardinals have already given up their earliest draft pick, No. 19. Before the penalties, the Cardinals had the second-smallest draft bonus pool of the 30 teams, and Tuesday's decision will nearly slice it in half. The Cardinals will lose the bonus allotment assigned to pick No. 56 ($1,122,400) and No. 75 ($730,800). That drops their total available bonus pool from $3,925,500 to $2,072,300. Houston's draft pool will grow by the same amount as a result of being awarded the Cardinals picks.
The Astros filed a claim that initiated the commissioner's investigation.
The Cardinals' first pick in the draft this June now will be No. 94.
The Cardinals became aware of the investigation in early 2015, and federal investigators visited Busch Stadium to remove computers as part of their inquiry. The investigation became public in June 2015. An internal investigation was launched at that time and the Cardinals fired Correa as a result.
"This has been a long and challenging process for all of us, especially those within our baseball operations department," said general manager John Mozeliak in a statement from the team. "We have learned a great deal along the way and we have taken additional steps to ensure that something like this doesn't ever happen again."
