It's official: The teams that beat the Dodgers in back-to-back World Series have been branded as cheaters by Major League Baseball.
On Wednesday, three months after sanctioning the 2017 Houston Astros as cheaters, the league cited the Boston Red Sox for the same offense: the illegal use of technology to steal signs.
The sanctions assessed against the Red Sox, however, were far lighter, as the sins committed were judged to be far lighter. The only Red Sox employee punished: an advance scout who doubled as a replay room operator, who was suspended for the 2020 season.
Former Red Sox manager Alex Cora also was suspended for the 2020 season, but for his role as the Astros' bench coach in 2017, not for his conduct as the Boston manager in 2018. The Red Sox also were stripped of their second-round draft pick in 2020.
In his report, Commissioner Rob Manfred said he could not conclude that the Boston cheating extended to the 2018 World Series, in which the Red Sox beat the Dodgers. He said J.T. Watkins, the Boston staffer suspended Wednesday, "used in-game video to decode signs during the 2018 regular season only. The evidence uncovered during the investigation is insufficient to conclude that the conduct continued in the 2018 postseason or 2019 regular season."
Said Red Sox President Sam Kennedy in a statement: "As an organization, we strive for 100 percent compliance with the rules. MLB's investigation concluded that in isolated instances during the 2018 regular season, sign sequences were decoded through the use of live game video rather than through permissible means ...
"We apologize to our fans and to Major League Baseball, and accept the commissioner's ruling."
