SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Toronto Blue Jays bench coach Dave Hudgens is part of Major League Baseball’s probe into electronic sign-stealing by the Houston Astros during the 2017 season, according to two industry sources.
Hudgens, the Astros hitting coach from 2015-18 before leaving to serve under Charlie Montoyo, confirmed to sportsnet.ca that he’s been contacted by MLB’s Department of Investigations, but declined to comment further.
Thus far, there are no allegations against the respected Hudgens specifically, and investigators intend to speak with numerous people who were around the team at the time to determine the extent of any rule-breaking to have taken place. Their stories are sure to be cross-referenced to identify and corroborate commonalities.
It’s unclear what discipline, if any, those implicated might face if they are proven to have played a role in a scandal that rocked the General Managers Meetings this week. Commissioner Rob Manfred will dole out any potential punishments and in 2017, when the Boston Red Sox were fined for the use of smart watches in the dugout to transmit stolen signs, he said future transgressions will be subject to harsher penalties, including the potential loss of draft picks.
The MLB probe comes after The Athletic‘s bombshell revelation this week of an elaborate sign-stealing plot involving a centre-field camera feed to a dugout tunnel monitor and the banging on a trash can to identify off-speed or breaking pitches.
A subsequent piece by The Athletic said Astros manager A.J. Hinch along with Red Sox manager Alex Cora and New York Mets manager Carlos Beltran, both of whom were with Houston at the time, are “virtually certain” to be included in MLB’s probe, as well.
A video by Jomboy Media posted to Twitter soon after appeared to demonstrate the system in action, while Blue Jays blogger Ian Hunter subsequently identified an example from a Blue Jays game in Houston.
Sign-stealing has long been a part of baseball and considered fair game by those on the field of play, but the use of aids from off the field is verboten. The Astros are certainly not the only team to engage in such subterfuge, but it’s rare for a team to be publicly outed the way they have been, including comments to The Athletic from Mike Fiers, one of their former pitchers.
The Blue Jays have been accused of stealing signs numerous times in recent years, most infamously in an ESPN The Magazine piece from 2011 in which four players from an unnamed team said they had spotted a man in white in the centre-field stands at Rogers Centre relaying pitches.
[relatedlinks]