The Scandal: What’s on tap for 2020?
The 2020 MLB season will be unlike anything baseball fans have ever seen before. This much is obvious as every new season is different than the previous. 2020 in particular, will be unprecedented. Baseball is in a whirlwind of controversy as a result of the sign-stealing scandal in which the 2017 and 2018 World Series champions have taken center stage. The illicit use of technology to steal the oppositions signs was mildly dealt with following a slap on the wrist to the apple-watch using 2017 Red Sox and Yankees. This current scandal is a much different pill to swallow. My belief is that every single team in MLB has endeavored in some sort of scheme to use technology to steal signs. They just have not been caught. Rob Manfred and the league office has no choice but to permanently thwart the use of technology to steal signs.
Sign-stealing has been a part of baseball since its inception. Technology is now maximizing accuracy and efficiency in this tactic. It is this accuracy that brings the 2017 and 2018 World Series into question. Did the respective teams really win these titles fair and square? The integrity of the game needs to be protected which demands more action be taken. Suspensions on the player side is an absolute necessity. Baseball has a funny way of policing their own game. The league and everyone associated with it likes to keep things in house and deal with things internally or on the field. In this case more action is needed from the powers that be and the punishment must be public. During the league’s investigation there is no doubt the players role was central to the sign-stealing scheme. Due to this, suspensions should be handed down to all these players or at least the group that spear headed the cheating. With only a slap on the wrist in the form of organizational change for the Astros, players will still be willing to risk using technology to form a competitive advantage at the highest level again in the future.
More punishment is not the only answer. MLB can make strides to make cheating in this manner a lot more difficult. The first idea would be banning all technology from the first pitch on. Thanks to Trevor Bauer, it is now known that the league deploys a 10 second delay on their live broadcasting to prevent information from being relayed from the TV in the clubhouse. A total ban would be controversial as technology is used for other aspects of the game including replay review, film study for in game adjustments, and advanced scouting. Despite this, the law must be laid down and players should play without the benefit of technology. If you can believe it, the game used to be played this way less than 20 years ago. The next idea, which is not quite as practical as the above would be the use of ear pieces to relay signs between the catcher and pitcher. This presents a plethora of different issues in its own right and would not be practical for any party involved.
It is going to be hard to bottle up a scandal of this magnitude in the age of constant non-stop media and stories. In 2020, it is critical that the league not only effectively police its own but is also able to hand down necessary public punishment and rule changes to make this sort of scandal never come to light again. The illicit use of technology to steal signs should never be “part” of the game. Risk your own head at second base and decipher any nuance you can the old-fashioned way. That is strategy. It is time to stop this new age sign stealing strategy before the game is tainted further.