Ex-Cardinals employee Chris Correa lashes out at MLB from prison

Yesterday, as you know, the Cardinals were fined $2 million and were ordered to surrender two draft picks as punishment for the acts of Chris Correa, their former scouting director, who hacked into the Houston Astros scouting and analytics database. Correa is serving 46 months in prison for his crime.

This morning Correa released a statement sharply criticizing Major League Baseball and Commissioner Rob Manfred for their findings and order issued yesterday. His statement:

Correa continues to maintain -- as he did in court -- that he hacked into the Astros system to see what they had hacked from the Cardinals. The judge was not impressed at all with this line of argument and shut Correa down when he tried to offer it as an excuse.

I don’t know if Manfred looked into Correa’s claim that the Astros likewise did wrong, but after more than three years one would have assumed that, had there been unauthorized access in both directions, we would’ve heard about it from someone other than Chris Correa. Either way, I can’t imagine the judge is going to be too impressed with this statement from Correa. And I am certain Major League Baseball will not be moved.

UPDATE: Major League Baseball has issued a statement in response to Correa:

Mr. Correa and potential witnesses were informed of our decision to defer our investigation until the government completed its investigation and any criminal charges against Mr. Correa were adjudicated. Upon the conclusion of the federal investigation, during July and August 2016, the Department of Investigations repeatedly requested Mr. Correa’s cooperation through his attorney. On July 21, 2016, Mr. Correa was informed directly that he would be placed on the permanently ineligible list if he did not cooperate with the Department of Investigations. Mr. Correa not only steadfastly refused to answer any questions, but also opposed the release of any documents by the government to the Office of the Commissioner. On August 23, 2016, Mr. Correa’s attorney told the Department of Investigations that Mr. Correa was not interested in ‘providing any information directly or indirectly to MLB.’ The Department of Investigations was not provided evidence to substantiate the other allegations contained in Mr. Correa’s letter, but remains willing to meet with Mr. Correa at any time.”

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