The St. Louis Cardinals could be in a world of trouble if the organization is found guilty of corporate espionage. According to the New York Times, the FBI is investigating the MLB club's involvement in hacking into the Houston Astros' computer database.
Investigators say that Cardinals' officials illegally obtained internal discussions about trades, proprietary statistics and scouting reports from the alleged hack. Last year the Astros had their "Ground Control" database hacked, which ultimately led to the release of sensitive information, such as discussions about trades involving Miami Marlins' outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, starter Bud Norris and then-New York Yankees outfielder Ichiro Suzuki.
There were no suspects associated with the illegal hack until now.
"Law enforcement officials believe the hacking was executed by vengeful front-office employees for the Cardinals hoping to wreak havoc on the work of Jeff Luhnow, the Astros' general manager who had been a successful and polarizing executive with the Cardinals until 2011," writes Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times.
"From 1994 to 2012, the Astros and the Cardinals were division rivals, in the National League. For a part of that time, Mr. Luhnow was a Cardinals executive, primarily handling scouting and player development. One of many innovative thinkers drawn to the sport by the 'Moneyball' phenomenon, he was credited with building baseball's best minor league system, as well as drafting several players who would become linchpins of the Cardinals' 2011 World Series-winning team."
While Luhnow was with the Cardinals, the organization developed a computer network called Redbird, which stored all of their baseball information, ranging from scouting reports, player personnel info, trade discussions, relative statistics, etc. After uncovering evidence of the alleged hack, investigators believe Cardinals' officials were concerned that Luhnow and other officials that went with him to Houston took St. Louis' idea and baseball intel. The Cardinals' officials are said to have examined a master list of passwords Luhnow used while he was with the Cardinals, and then used those passwords to gain access to the Astros' database.
The hack was traced back to the home of some Cardinals' officials.
When the MLB found out about last year's hack they notified the FBI and an investigation was opened shortly thereafter. The names of the alleged hackers are unknown and they have not been put on leave, suspended or fired. It's believed the MLB will wait until the investigation's findings are released to impose any punishments, if need be.
