A.J. Hinch was suspended a season by MLB for his role in the Houston Astros cheating scandal, and it’s easy to see why he received such harsh discipline.
Hinch was the manager of the team when they were found to have been cheating. And while he supposedly expressed disapproval of his players’ actions when it came to the sign-stealing and cheating, he failed to stop it.
According to MLB’s release on the Astros’ penalties, Hinch damaged two monitors to show he was unhappy with the practice, but he did not act to stop his players.
From MLB’s release:
Hinch attempted to signal his disapproval of the scheme by physically damaging the monitor on two occasions, necessitating its replacement. However, Hinch admits he did not stop it and he did not notify players or Cora that he disapproved of it, even after the Red Sox were disciplined in September 2017. Similarly, he knew of and did not stop the communication of sign information from the replay review room, although he disagreed with this practice as well and specifically voiced his concerns on at least one occasion about the use of the replay phone for this purpose.
MLB’s release says Hinch was contrite when speaking with them, but that was not enough to get him off the hook. He could and should have stopped the practice immediately. Instead, he allowed it to continue. That’s his responsibility as manager, and he deserves the harsh penalty he received.
