Major League Baseball and Commissioner Rob Manfred are reportedly nearing the end of their two-month investigation into the Houston Astros’ alleged electronically-aided sign-stealing during the 2017 season.

Announcement of expected discipline by the league is said to be “within the next two weeks,” or by the end of January. Some reports have suggested the announcement could come as soon as “next week,” or the week of January 13.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, in a January 7 report, proposed sanctions might include suspensions for either or both of general manager and president of baseball operations Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch.

How It Began

Former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers and three other people employed by the Astros in 2017 told The Athletic last fall that during that season, “the Astros stole signs during home games in real time with the aid of a camera positioned in the outfield.”

While “sign-stealing” itself has long been a player-accepted, gamesmanship ploy utilized by most teams to varying degrees, the understanding among all is that it only be used “organically,” and kept between the lines.

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Players Appear Safe

While MLB has understandably been silent during the investigation, three players who have been interviewed (and reportedly admitted to the camera-to-monitor-to-trash-can-beating scheme), told ESPN that the targets for discipline will not include current active players on the Astros.

Rather, those facing sanctions, including suspensions, would be team employees, most likely front office and on-field coaching personnel. The team, owned by Jim Crane, will also likely face a substantial fine and possibly be stripped of multiple draft picks in this and future years.

Manfred is charged with landing on a suitable punishment and discipline structure designed to accomplish two things: Set a precedent for possible similar sign-stealing schemes going forward and being careful and precise on whom to assign responsibility or guilt.

A Manfred memo sent to all teams on September 15, 2017, explicitly stated he would punish teams that break the rules outlining the use of technology. That memo lengthens the field of possible discipline avenues Manfred can, and likely, will explore, and ultimately, sanctions to mete out.

Somehow, as an organization, the Astros need to brace themselves.

Collateral Damage?

Prior to the new year, a curious conundrum faced Manfred regarding former Houston employees: Should player Carlos Beltran or bench coach Alex Cora, both employed by the Astros in 2017, be found culpable for the scheme, how should MLB proceed in punishing them?

Beltran is the manager of the New York Mets, and Cora will begin his third year, in 2020, as skipper of the Boston Red Sox. Short of a personal fine, any team-oriented sanction would seem to be unfair to their current respective teams.

At the annual MLB Winter Meetings in December, Cora would not say if he was aware the Astros stole signs electronically in 2017, when he was Houston’s bench coach.

But, according to a January 7 New York Post report, “Beltran appears more likely than not to avoid hard discipline and begin his new job as Mets manager without any hiccups.”

Regarding Beltran, according to the Post, “1) MLB has the right to suspend him from his current job, even if it’s not related to the time and place of any wrongdoing; and 2) the Players Association couldn’t and wouldn’t defend Beltran from discipline regarding his current gig.”

The Web Expands?

Cora, though, appears to be embroiled in yet another sign-stealing scheme, according to recent reports. Manfred and the league office announced Tuesday that it would be investigating new charges that Cora’s champion 2018 Red Sox illegally stole signs, according to The Athletic.

The Athletic‘s Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich, the two correspondents who originally broke Houston’s November allegations, reported on January 7, note that “Three people who were with the Red Sox during their 108-win 2018 season told The Athletic that during that regular season, at least some players visited the video replay room during games to learn the sign sequence opponents were using.”

The report continued to state that the system was not in effect or viable during the 2018 postseason when Boston won the World Series.

The Athletic described the Red Sox’s system: “The replay room is just steps from the home dugout at Fenway Park, through the same doors that lead to the batting cage. Every team’s replay staff travels to road games, making the system viable in other parks as well.”

The Bottom Line

The industry is waiting for Manfred to set the bar regarding electronically-aided sign stealing. He’ll set it high. He has to. The Astros can expect to be spanked… and spanked hard.

Unfortunately, they’re the first. And as the first, Manfred will feel the pressure by baseball’s standard-bearers, its advertising sponsors, and its fans to not only “make an example” of the Astros, but to signal to all that the integrity of the game is still intact.

If the commissioner’s lucky, his sanctions will signal that the sport’s prized integrity never left, or if it did, has been decisively and quickly restored.

Then, the Astros can get back to playing ball, using a bat only for the sole purpose Alexander Cartwright intended.