Drayer: Astros’ punishment is huge moment in baseball history
Jan 13, 2020, 2:04 PM
With MLB dropping the hammer Monday on the Houston Astros and the subsequent firing of GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch, “Boy Howdy” James Osborn and I took a few minutes on video to share on our initial thoughts of the impact this could have moving forward in baseball.
Astros manager, GM fired after MLB hands down bans for sign-stealing
For background, you can read the full report on the cheating scandal issued by MLB – to this point, as the investigation is ongoing – can be found here.
A lot of questions come out this news. How big of a story is this in baseball? What impact will it have on the AL West and Mariners? What will the Astros look like in 2020?
My feeling is that with the loss of draft picks – the Astros have been stripped of their first- and second-round picks for both 2020 and 2021 – the bigger impact is to come down the road, but as this was a first blush reaction, an hour later I am left wondering if that impact could hit sooner.
The Astros were already facing roster challenges due to their ever-increasing payroll. It’s a little late now and tough to do without a GM, but what if they decide that with the penalties now is the time to start their next rebuild? I would imagine they could get a number of first- and second-round draft pick players in trades for their current veterans. Just one of the many possibilities of what could follow.
Big story worth big discussion and obviously still more to come.
If you would prefer to listen to an audio-only podcast version of this special edition of Mariners Talk, click here.
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