Ex-Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow Continues To Deny Role In Sign-Stealing Scandal

In his first public comments since being fired in January, ex Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow reiterated on Houston TV station KPRC that he was not involved in the Astros 2017 sign-stealing scandal and claimed that newly released text messages by players and management that were released exonerate him.

“It’s pretty clear who was involved in the video-decoding scheme, when it started, how often it happened and basically when it ended. And it’s also pretty clear who was not involved,” Luhnow said. “And I don’t know why that information, that evidence, wasn’t discussed in the ruling, wasn’t used. The people who were involved that didn’t leave naturally to go to other teams are all still employed by the Astros.

“In fact, one of the people who was intimately involved, I had demoted from a position in the clubhouse to a position somewhere else, and after I was fired, he was promoted back into the clubhouse. So none of those people faced any repercussions. They weren’t discussed in the report, but the evidence is all there that they were involved.”

While it is possible Luhnow had nothing to do with it, it is unlikely that he had no idea. Luhnow was probably forced out in January by the MLB because of this scandal. What will be interesting to see if this story goes away before the next MLB season. The opposing team’s fans never got their chance to give the Astros a talking to because of the pandemic – and we will see how long baseball fans’ memories last this next April.