On Monday, Major League Baseball slapped the Houston Astros with an unprecedented punishment for their involvement in a sign-stealing scandal, which not only taints their 2017 World Series title, but also hurts the franchise for years to come.
MLB suspended Astros manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow for one year, stripped the team of its first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021, and fined the organization $5 million – the maximum amount allowed under the MLB Constitution. Astros owner Jim Crane has since fired Hinch and Luhnow.
CBS Sports Radio’s Tiki & Tierney both felt the punishment was justified. Brandon Tierney, in fact, had called the impending punishment the most important moment of Rob Manfred’s tenure, and he feels the commissioner passed the test.
“This is a massive dent in their future, especially since they draft so well,” Tierney said of the Astros. “For a guy who was ranting and raving about this like a lunatic when this first went down in real time, that this was the most pivotal point in Rob Manfred’s commissionership – nice job, commissioner. Well done.”
Tiki Barber agreed.
“All you can do is give him a serious pat on the back because he squashed it,” Barber said. “No team will ever think about doing this again. . . . When was the last time you saw someone fined $5 million? It just doesn’t happen. To hit the max – and it probably wasn’t even a conversation. It’s like, ‘Dude, they’re getting five, and now we got to figure out what the hell else we’re going to do.’”