One of the most trending topics in baseball as the new MLB season approaches is the Houston Astros cheating scandal.  The Astros used technology, specifically hidden cameras in centerfield and buzzers attached to players, to relay anticipated pitches to batters. This effort was used to aid the team in winning the 2017 World Series versus the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Players and staff of the Astros organization have all come out publicly to apologize for their wrongdoings, leading to the dismissal of the General Manager, Jeff Luhnow, and Manager, A.J. Hinch, from the Astros organization. The ball club has also been fined $5 million and has been stripped of both first and second-round draft picks in both the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Both Hinch and Luhnow were suspended for the 2020 season, and will go unpaid and cannot work in Major League Baseball until their suspensions are cleared.  However, even after their suspensions have finished, finding work will be difficult with the label “cheater” floating around with their names. Some argue that the punishments handed down were harsh, but I agree that they needed to be. Stealing signs in any fashion is highly frowned upon at any level of baseball. This being said, should the players involved with this situation receive more punishment for their actions during the 2017 season?

There is no doubt in my mind that every player involved in the scandal is a cheater and should receive some sort of punishment. The sentence should be dependent involvement. For example, how often the player had used the stolen signs and how important the moment of the game was when it had occurred could be some of the criteris. Jose Altuve is a great example of a player who should receive at least a yearlong suspension, equivalent or greater than his managment, in the 2020 Major League Baseball season. In the 2017 American League Championship Series (ALCS), Jose Altuve hit a game-winning home run in the ninth inning. This home run was hit off one of the most well-known power-pitching players in the MLB, Aroldis Chapman. Chapman, being able to hit velocities of up to 106 MPH, was having trouble locating his fastball for a strike and left an offspeed pitch up in the strike zone. Altuve put a great swing on the pitch, almost looking too perfect to be true, like he knew the pitch was coming. We know today that he actually did know, and that he was selfish enough to use a performance enhancing device to send his team to the World Series. This performance was not authentic, and his right to play baseball should be taken away from him. I don’t believe fining the player would be enough in this situation because it wouldn’t teach him a lesson. Taking away $5 million from him is barely any of his income, and it wouldn’t affect him nearly as much as taking away his right to play and his pay check for a year.

People also have to realize what the effect cheating has on opposing players as well. Clayton Kershaw is known throughout the baseball world as the biggest “choke” in the Post-Season, meaning that he isn’t nearly as good in the Post-Season as he is in the Regular-Season.  The World Series in 2017 during games against the Astros was when this label was created. Sports Illusrated reports that:

“By the fourth inning of Game 5, Kershaw had not allowed a base runner and held a 4-0 lead. To that point in his career he was 105-7 when the Dodgers gave him four runs, and 71-1 when they gave him a four-run lead. And then he was poisoned. Houston hung six runs on Kershaw, knocking him from the game in the fifth inning. He lost leads of 4-0 and 7-4. The Astros would win one of the wildest World Series games ever played, 13-12, and go on to win the series.”

The impact that this can have on a player is insane. It can make him hate the game that he has grown up loving, and take away the fun in playing. These enhancements are detrimental to the competitive edge that is necessary to play in big games like the World Series, because there is no competition anymore, all the answers to the test are given away.

These are the reasons why I believe the MLB should also have the players from the Astros involved within the cheating scandal punished as well. There is no room for edge in the MLB, because it takes away the natural-born skill combined with hard work that athletes have completed to prepare for playing in the MLB. The players should be taught a true lesson by having to sit out, rather than paying a monetary fine alone.  A precedent must be set so there is no temptation for players in future seasons to try to cheat again.