ST. LOUIS • A bruising series of investigations that sent a rising executive to prison and dented the Cardinals’ cherished reputation reached closure Monday as Major League Baseball leveled unprecedented penalties that will limit the club’s ability to acquire talent this summer and send two draft picks to the Houston Astros.
Commissioner Rob Manfred ruled the Cardinals, as a club, were “liable for the misconduct” of an individual employee, former scouting director Chris Correa, who illegally accessed Houston’s internal database. As a result Manfred issued the harshest punishment of his tenure. The Cardinals’ first two picks in the upcoming draft will go to the Astros, as will the cap money attached to those picks.