Chris Correa was the scouting director of the St. Louis Cardinals for about seven months. He was hired in December of 2014 after years as an analyst, but his term ended abruptly on Wednesday.
The Cardinals terminated the contract of Correa during his "imposed leave of absence," according to Robert Patrick and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Correa declined to comment and general manager John Mozeliak confirmed the move, which was seemingly related to the Houston Astros' hacking scandal.
"I can confirm he was on administrative leave and subsequently was terminated (Wednesday)," Mozeliak told the Post-Dispatch. "At this time it's still an ongoing investigation, and there's really nothing more that I can add at this point."
Correa's lawyer also released a statement on behalf of his client.
"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 benefited from that roguish behavior?"
However, a source with knowledge of the investigation told the Post-Dispatch otherwise.
"Correa has admitted hacking into a Houston database but only to determine whether the Astros had stolen proprietary data," Patrick and Goold wrote.
"Correa did not leak any Astros data and is not responsible for additional hacks that the FBI has alleged occurred."
His involvement with the hacking was said to have began in 2013. He became skeptical when a job seeker submitted a résumé claiming expertise that Correa believed could only be obtained by working with the team's proprietary information. Correa claimed to have used an old password from a former Cardinals employee who currently works for the Astros, but says he did not download data from Houston's "Ground Control" system.
There are still four other Cardinals employees under investigation by the FBI and their attorney, Matthew Schelp, declined to comment as well.
We'll be keeping updates on this most recent development.
