He said he was acting alone and intending to see whether the Astros had gained access to proprietary information from the Cardinals.
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Hughes said Correa’s actions were primarily about a loss of trust.
Cardinals general manager Bill DeWitt has blamed the scheme on a handful of “rogueish individuals”. In a separate statement, the Cardinals said they plan to cooperate with the MLB’s investigation.
The Houston Astros released a statement that read, “We appreciate the thorough effort of the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office in their investigation of these criminal acts”. No one else was charged.
Correa was dismissed from his position with the Cardinals a year ago.
He also looked at what was being developed by the Astros’ analytics department – the money ball guys – and the farm reports, how players in the developmental leagues were doing. In court, Correa claimed that he had carried it out because he suspected that the Astros had “misappropriated” work from him and his colleagues, and was hoping to investigate. He also accessed the account of a second Astros employee.
Federal prosecutors alleged that between 2013 and 2014, Correa hacked into Astros databases to view scouting reports, draft picks, proposed signing bonuses and other inside information. “We don’t have all of the facts in the St. Louis-Houston situation”. Once inside, Correa repeated his intrusions throughout 2013 and 2014, even after the Astros attempted to tighten security on the Ground Control system and reset all passwords. It was the first known case of cyber-espionage involving a professional sports team hacking into another team’s database. He proceeded to identify the Ground Control database and then tried and successfully authenticated with Luhnow’s older passwords. Luhnow continued to use a variation of that password in Houston.
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The St Louis Cardinals – one of the country’s most successful teams after the New York Yankees – now faces potential fines and/or penalties once investigators get hold of the details of the case from the relevant authorities. Only the New York Yankees have more World Series titles than the 11 won by St. Louis. The Astros and Cardinals were rivals in the National League Central until Houston moved to the American League in 2013.
