Major League Baseball

The world just learned of the Astros’ cheating. Inside baseball, it was an open secret.

By Barry Svrluga and Dave Sheinin
Feb. 11, 2020 at 3:44 p.m. EST

On the evening of Oct. 22, 2019, a group of umpires, Major League Baseball officials and the brain trusts of the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros — the respective general managers, Mike Rizzo and Jeff Luhnow, and managers Dave Martinez and A.J. Hinch — filed into a room beneath Minute Maid Park in Houston for a pre-World Series meeting. While ordinary in nature, the meeting would become notable in the weeks that followed.

Joe Torre, the Hall of Fame manager who now serves as MLB’s chief baseball officer, cut through the standard review of ground rules and other on-field matters with an unusual, “no-shenanigans” warning, according to people familiar with the meeting: No cameras trained on dugouts or catchers, and no electronics in the dugout.

Although the same message had been delivered before other playoff series in an era in which technology has crept ever closer to the dugout, neither Torre, his staff, nor the Astros knew what Rizzo and Martinez did: The Astros’ reputation for being rampant cheaters had so preceded them that the Nationals had arrived prepared.

By the end of the month, the Nationals would wrap up a World Series championship. Thirteen days after that, the Astros’ franchise would be stained by an electronic sign-stealing scandal that has tainted its own 2017 World Series title and consumed the sport for much of the offseason.

The Astros’ system for using electronics to steal signs came into full public view Nov. 12, when former pitcher Mike Fiers exposed the machinations in a story published by the Athletic. The report prompted an MLB investigation that resulted in the suspension and firing of both Luhnow and Hinch. Paranoia about the Astros’ methods had gripped baseball, affecting the way other teams scouted and prepared to face Houston — in some cases crippling officials with worry.

According to people at all levels throughout the sport — players, clubhouse staff members, scouts and executives — the idea that the Astros employed nefarious methods was an open secret.

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Barry Svrluga
Barry Svrluga became a sports columnist for The Washington Post in December 2016. He arrived at The Post in 2003 to cover football and basketball at the University of Maryland and has covered the Washington Nationals, the Redskins, the Olympics and golf. Follow https://twitter.com/barrysvrluga

Dave Sheinin
Dave Sheinin has been covering baseball and writing features and enterprise stories for The Washington Post since 1999. In 2019, he was awarded the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting. Follow https://twitter.com/DaveSheinin