Remember when the narrative surrounding the saga of St. Louis Cardinals staffers hacking a Houston Astros database was “well, it must have been a low level member of the front office”? Well, that narrative has been turned on its head – according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals have fired scouting director Chris Correa in relation to the hacking incident. That’s not good.
In a prepared statement, Correa lawyer Nicholas Williams wrote, “Mr. Correa denies any illegal conduct. The relevant inquiry should be what information did former St. Louis Cardinals employees steal from the St. Louis Cardinals organization prior to joining the Houston Astros, and who in the Houston Astros organization authorized, consented to, or benefitted from that roguish behavior.”
Correa has admitted hacking into a Houston Astros database but said it was only to verify whether the Astros had stolen proprietary data, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
Correa did not leak any Astros data, and is not responsible for additional hacks that the FBI has alleged occurred or leaking any data, said the source.
This is only the tip of the iceberg, folks. Correa was a newly-promoted, yet significant, member of the Cardinals front office that initially came to the organization because of Astros GM Jeff Luhnow. And now, he’s admitted to hacking into the Astros database, and his lawyer is trying to point the finger at Luhnow and other Astros employees.
Correa’s termination is only the beginning of this mess. It’s about to get a lot uglier.
