Matheny Unaware of Investigation

The news of the F.B.I. and Justice Department investigating the St. Louis Cardinals for possibly hacking into the computer network of the Houston Astros has caught most by surprise–including manager Mike Matheny.

“I got pulled out of the weight room this morning and was informed there was a story,” said Matheny, adding he was grateful he had no prior knowledge of the situation. “Where we are right now is we don’t know anymore than anybody else and just kind of waiting to hear. We heard from the front office, this is something that’s going to be addressed soon. Then we’ll be up to speed, but right now we just go about our business and realize it’s something that’s being dealt with.”

The Cardinals issued the following statement a few minutes after Matheny met with the media:

“The St. Louis Cardinals are aware of the investigation into the security breach of the Houston Astros’ database.  The team has fully cooperated with the investigation and will continue to do so.  Given that this is an ongoing federal investigation, it is not appropriate for us to comment further.”

The story of the investigation was first reported by the New York Times, which shared law enforcement officials believe the hacking into the Astros system was performed by “vengeful front-office employees for the Cardinals hoping to wreak havoc on the work of Jeff Luhnow”.

Luhnow is currently the Astros’ general manager, but he previously worked as a Vice President for the Cardinals in player development and scouting.

Last year, details from the Astros front office “Ground Control” database were posted to Anobin–an anonymous data sharing website. Part of that information detailed a conversation between Luhnow and Cardinals GM John Mozeliak about possibly working out a deal to trade for Bud Norris or Erik Bedard. At the time, the information was believed to be part of an internal leak from the Houston organization.

photo credit: Steve Mitchell, Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports