The file
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Houston Astros

MLB club in Houston, fined $5 million in 2020 for electronic sign stealing in 2017 and 2018

Entries
35
On the record
19
Stories
3
Latest entry
Jan 20, 2026

The record

Compiled by the MrScandal desk from the documents below · Desk editor Gustavs Ērkšķis-Kreicbergs · Nov 12, 2026

The Astros cheating scandal is the club's use of a center-field camera feed to decode opposing catchers' signs in 2017 and part of 2018, the year Houston won its first World Series. Pitcher Mike Fiers, who had played for the 2017 Astros, described the scheme on the record to The Athletic on November 12, 2019. Commissioner Rob Manfred's decision of January 13, 2020 found that players watched the live feed on a monitor next to the dugout and banged a trash can to tell the batter an off-speed pitch was coming, and that replay room staff decoded signs as well.

MLB fined the club $5 million, the maximum, and took its first- and second-round picks in 2020 and 2021. General manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch were suspended without pay through the 2020 World Series; owner Jim Crane fired both the same day. Manfred disciplined no players, citing his 2017 notice that general managers and managers would answer for such conduct, and found no evidence Crane knew. Former bench coach Alex Cora left the Red Sox and Carlos Beltrán, the only player named, left the Mets within days.

The courts gave the scheme's critics nothing. A federal judge dismissed a DraftKings players' fraud suit in April 2020 and the Second Circuit affirmed in March 2022. A Texas appeals court ordered a season-ticket holders' class action dismissed in July 2021, and pitcher Mike Bolsinger's California suit was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction before he refiled in Texas. Luhnow sued the club for more than $22 million in November 2020; the case was dismissed with prejudice in February 2021 after the two sides resolved their differences, on terms that were not disclosed.

Questions people ask

What did the Astros do in the cheating scandal?

About two months into the 2017 season, players including Carlos Beltrán discussed improving how they decoded signs, and bench coach Alex Cora had a monitor showing the center-field camera feed installed just outside the dugout. Players watched the feed, decoded the catcher's sign and banged a trash can, usually once or twice for an off-speed pitch and not at all for a fastball. Replay room staff also decoded signs in 2017 and for part of 2018, MLB found. source

What was the Astros' punishment for sign stealing?

On January 13, 2020 Commissioner Rob Manfred fined the club $5 million, the highest fine the Major League Constitution allows, and took its regular first- and second-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts. Jeff Luhnow and A.J. Hinch were each suspended without pay until the day after the 2020 World Series, and told that any future material violation would put them on the permanently ineligible list. source

Were any Astros players punished?

No. Manfred wrote that he would not discipline individual players because in September 2017 he had decided to hold a club's general manager and field manager accountable for this kind of misconduct. He added that virtually all of the players had some involvement or knowledge of the scheme, that he could not fix each one's culpability with certainty, and that many had since moved to other clubs. source

Did the Astros keep their 2017 World Series title?

Yes. At the club's apology news conference on February 13, 2020, owner Jim Crane said the commissioner had made clear that MLB would not go backwards and that the championship would stay intact. Crane also said the scheme did not impact the game, a remark he later walked back when pressed in the same news conference. source

What happened to Alex Cora?

Cora, the Astros' 2017 bench coach, was named in MLB's report as involved in both the trash-can scheme and the replay room decoding. He and the Red Sox parted ways in January 2020. On April 22, 2020 Manfred suspended him through the 2020 postseason for his conduct in Houston, and found he had done nothing wrong as Boston's manager in 2018. The Red Sox rehired him in November 2020. source

How did courts rule on the DraftKings sign-stealing lawsuit?

Fantasy players who paid to enter DraftKings baseball contests sued MLB, the Astros and the Red Sox, saying sign stealing made the contests unfair. Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed the case on April 3, 2020. On March 21, 2022 the Second Circuit affirmed, holding that statements by a league and its teams about the competition itself cannot support fraud claims by fantasy consumers, and upheld the unsealing of a 2017 letter to the Yankees. source

What happened to the season-ticket holders' lawsuit?

Season-ticket holders filed a class action in February 2020 saying they would not have bought tickets had they known of the scheme. On July 15, 2021 Texas's Fourteenth Court of Appeals vacated the trial court's refusal to dismiss it and ordered the case dismissed, holding that claims about how a team plays the game are not cognizable and that in Texas a baseball ticket is a revocable license. source

Did Jeff Luhnow sue the Astros?

Yes. Luhnow sued the club in Harris County in November 2020 for more than $20 million he said he was still owed, arguing he had been made a scapegoat. On February 5, 2021 Judge Kyle Carter granted a motion to dismiss the suit with prejudice after the two sides resolved their differences. No terms were disclosed and neither side commented. source

Roles and honours on the record

  • 1962 Major league franchise, first game as the Houston Colt .45s on April 10, 1962 source
  • 1965 Renamed the Houston Astros, playing in the Astrodome source
  • 2017 and 2022 World Series champions, over the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies source
  • as of 2020 Owned by Jim Crane source

Every entry, newest first

Last entry Feb 10, 2020
  1. Filed

    Pitcher Mike Bolsinger sued the Astros in Los Angeles Superior Court; the team said it was not commenting. Astros fined $5M, lose four draft picks; Hinch, Luhnow suspended

  2. Ruled

    MLB fines Astros $5 million, removes 2020-2021 first- and second-round picks; Luhnow and Hinch suspended, then fired. Biggest punishments in sport: Armstrong's stripped titles lead

  3. Ruled

    MLB commissioner fined the Astros $5 million and removed first- and second-round picks for 2020 and 2021, per MLB's decision. Biggest sports punishments: Astros' $5M fine, two firings top

Stories in this file

Lance Armstrong: 97 Top scoreSports · 7d ago

🚴 Biggest punishments in sport: Armstrong's stripped titles lead

Seven rulings from cycling, cricket, baseball and athletics. Butt and Gatlin dispute parts of their cases; Rodriguez said he would appeal. ⏳

A. J. Hinch: $5M MLB fineSports · 7d ago

⚾ Astros fined $5M, lose four draft picks; Hinch, Luhnow suspended

Luhnow denies knowing and later sued the team. A rival pitcher's suit was partly dismissed over venue; the Astros declined to comment. 🗣️

Houston Astros: 96 Top scoreSports · 7d ago

⚾ Biggest sports punishments: Astros' $5M fine, two firings top

Luhnow denied knowing, Brady admitted no wrongdoing and the Pakistan cricketers denied the charges. These are the rulings on record. 🗣️

The record, entry by entry

Club background

  1. 1962-04-10 Official The Houston Colt .45s played their first major league game, beating the Chicago Cubs 11-2. MLB.com, Astros history timeline
  2. 1965 Official The Colt .45s became the Houston Astros and opened indoor baseball with a 2-1 exhibition win over the New York Yankees in the Astrodome on April 9. MLB.com, Astros history timeline
  3. 2005 Official The Astros reached their first World Series and were swept 4-0 by the Chicago White Sox. MLB.com, World Series history
  4. 2017 Official The Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3 to win the World Series, the club's first title. MLB.com, World Series history

The sign-stealing scheme and MLB's ruling

  1. 2017 Ruled About two months into the season, MLB later found, bench coach Alex Cora had a video technician install a monitor showing the center-field camera feed just outside the Astros' dugout. Players decoded the catcher's signs from the feed and banged a trash can, sometimes with a massage gun, to signal off-speed pitches. Most position players received the information or helped run the scheme. MLB, Statement of the Commissioner, In re Houston Astros
  2. 2017-09-15 Ruled MLB announced fines on the Boston Red Sox, caught relaying signs from their replay room to staff wearing smart watches, and on the New York Yankees for misusing the replay room phone, and put every club on notice. The Astros kept using the replay room and the dugout monitor for the rest of the season and the postseason, MLB later found. MLB, Statement of the Commissioner, In re Houston Astros
  3. 2018 Ruled After the club moved its replay room with MLB approval, players stopped the trash-can banging, but replay room staff kept decoding signs from the live center-field feed for at least part of the season and relayed them to the dugout. MLB found the Astros had stopped by the 2018 postseason. MLB, Statement of the Commissioner, In re Houston Astros
  4. 2019-11-12 Reported The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich reported that the 2017 Astros had stolen signs electronically through a center-field camera at Minute Maid Park. Former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers confirmed it on the record; MLB said it would look into the claims. NBC Sports, summarising The Athletic's report
  5. 2020-01-13 Ruled After interviewing 68 witnesses and reviewing tens of thousands of emails, Slack messages, texts and videos, the Commissioner fined the club $5 million, the highest fine allowed, and ordered it to forfeit its first- and second-round picks in 2020 and 2021. He found no evidence that Jim Crane was aware of the conduct. MLB, Statement of the Commissioner, In re Houston Astros
  6. 2020-01-13 Ruled Luhnow and Hinch were suspended without pay until the day after the 2020 World Series. MLB found no evidence Luhnow knew of the trash-can scheme but documentary and testimonial evidence that he had some knowledge of the replay room decoding; Hinch neither devised nor took part in the scheme and twice damaged the monitor, but admitted he did not stop it. Taubman was barred from working for any club through the 2020 World Series. MLB, Statement of the Commissioner, In re Houston Astros
  7. 2020-01-13 Official Crane fired Luhnow and Hinch the same day, going beyond the league's penalties. "We accept their decisions and findings and penalties," he said. CBS Sports report
  8. 2020-02-07 Reported The Wall Street Journal reported, from a January letter by Manfred to Luhnow, that Astros staff had used an Excel-based program called Codebreaker to decode catchers' signs, suggesting the front office laid groundwork for the scheme. Luhnow had told investigators he knew nothing of it. Sports Illustrated, summarising the Wall Street Journal
  9. 2020-02-13 Official At a spring training news conference in West Palm Beach, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve read apologies and Crane said the scheme "didn't impact the game", then later said he had not said that when pressed by reporters. NPR report

Brandon Taubman (2019)

  1. 2019-10-24 Official The club fired assistant general manager Brandon Taubman after first calling a Sports Illustrated report about his clubhouse comments to female reporters misleading. Its new statement said further interviews showed the comments were directed at one or more reporters, admitted "We were wrong" and apologised to the reporter and the magazine. CNBC, quoting the Astros' statement
  2. 2019-11-15 Ruled Manfred told Taubman he would be placed on the ineligible list for his clubhouse conduct while the sign-stealing investigation was completed. Taubman denied knowing of the scheme. MLB, Statement of the Commissioner, In re Houston Astros

Fallout at the Red Sox, Mets and Tigers

  1. 2020-01-14 Official The Red Sox and manager Alex Cora agreed to part ways over his role in the Astros' scheme. MLB had held back his discipline until it finished investigating the 2018 Red Sox. MLB.com report
  2. 2020-01-16 Official The New York Mets and Carlos Beltrán, hired as manager that winter and the only Astros player named in MLB's report, agreed to part ways before he managed a game. Beltrán said he could not let himself be a distraction. New York Mets press release
  3. 2020-04-22 Ruled Ruling on the 2018 Red Sox, Manfred suspended replay operator J.T. Watkins for the 2020 season, took Boston's 2020 second-round pick, and suspended Cora through the 2020 postseason for his conduct as Astros bench coach in 2017. He found Cora had not broken rules as Boston's manager. MLB, Commissioner's decision on the Red Sox investigation
  4. 2020-10-30 Official The Detroit Tigers hired Hinch as manager days after his one-year suspension ended with the 2020 World Series. Sports Illustrated report
  5. 2020-11-06 Official The Red Sox rehired Cora, 10 days after he finished his one-season suspension. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said Cora knew what he did was wrong and regretted it. Associated Press report (NBC 10)

Lawsuits over the scheme

  1. 2020-02-20 Filed Former Toronto pitcher Mike Bolsinger, whose last major league appearance was a heavy loss at Houston on August 4, 2017, sued the club in Los Angeles; Crane and front office staffer Derek Vigoa were later added as defendants. MLB Trade Rumors report
  2. 2020-04-03 Ruled U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan dismissed a proposed class action by DraftKings fantasy baseball players against MLB, MLB Advanced Media, the Astros and the Red Sox, without leave to amend. He denied reconsideration on June 5, 2020. Second Circuit opinion, Olson v. Major League Baseball, Nos. 20-1831, 20-1841
  3. 2021-03-18 Ruled A Los Angeles Superior Court judge dismissed Bolsinger's suit for lack of jurisdiction, saying "There is no single contact between California and this case." Bloomberg Law report
  4. 2021-05 Filed Bolsinger refiled against Houston Astros, LLC in Harris County, seeking more than $1 million and arguing that the stolen signs were trade secrets under Texas law. Bleacher Report
  5. 2021-07-15 Ruled Texas's Fourteenth Court of Appeals ordered the season-ticket holders' class action dismissed, holding that the fans had lost no legally protected right because they were never denied entry or their seats. Courthouse News Service report
  6. 2021-08 Ruled The Harris County court granted Bolsinger's voluntary partial nonsuit, dismissing only his conversion claim without prejudice in case No. 2021-28763 and leaving his other claims in place. No later ruling on those claims was found on the record. Harris County District Court order (Trellis copy)
  7. 2022-03-21 Ruled The Second Circuit affirmed the DraftKings dismissal, calling the case claims by disgruntled fantasy participants and holding that no fantasy consumer could plausibly claim to have relied on the league being free of intentional rule-breaking. It also upheld the unsealing, with redactions, of a September 14, 2017 letter from Manfred to the Yankees. Second Circuit opinion, Olson v. Major League Baseball

Jeff Luhnow's suit against the club

  1. 2020-11-09 Filed Luhnow sued the Astros in Harris County district court for breach of his May 2018 contract, seeking more than $22 million in guaranteed pay. He claimed his firing came out of a negotiated resolution between Crane and Manfred that let the club keep its title, and that MLB's investigation was deeply flawed. ESPN report
  2. 2021-02-05 Ruled Judge Kyle Carter dismissed Luhnow's suit with prejudice after the two sides resolved their differences. No settlement terms were disclosed and neither side commented. Bleacher Report

Since 2022

  1. 2022 Official The Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 to win the World Series, a year after losing the 2021 Series to Atlanta. MLB.com, World Series history
  2. 2022-04 Official The unsealed letter showed MLB had fined the Yankees $100,000 for improper use of the dugout phone after finding they used the replay room in 2015 and 2016 to decode sign sequences. MLB said the Yankees had not broken its sign-stealing rules as they stood then. MLB.com, MLB and Yankees statements on the 2017 letter
  3. 2026-01-20 Official Beltrán was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on his fourth ballot with 358 of 425 votes, 84.2 percent, and was inducted in Cooperstown on July 26, 2026. MLB.com, 2026 Hall of Fame voting results

Documents

Sources behind this file

  1. MLB Commissioner's statement in re Houston Astros · Statement, Jan 13, 2020
  2. USA Today report on the Astros penalties · Report, Jan 13, 2020

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