Courtesy of St. Louis Cardinals
The Houston Astros will be awarded the St. Louis Cardinals’ first two draft picks and a hefty fine.
On Monday afternoon, Major League Baseball commissioner Robert Manfred issued a decision that the Redbirds’ two highest available selections, Nos. 56 and 75, will be turned over to Houston, along with the slot money for those picks. The Cardinals will also pay a $2 million fine—the largest ever for a team—to the Astros.
“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. “Commissioner Manfred’s findings are fully consistent with our own investigation’s conclusion that this activity was isolated to a single individual.”
Last January, former Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa pleaded guilty to five counts of unauthorized access to the Astros’ email system and analytical scouting database. The court later sentenced Correa to more than three years in prison.
Though the commissioner's office did not find any other Cardinals employees responsible for the intrusions, it still held the team responsible for his misconduct.
"This has been a long and challenging process for all of us, especially those within our baseball operations department," Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said in a statement. "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."
