The Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal resulted in some of the biggest punishments baseball has ever seen. Jeff Lunhow and A.J. Hinch were suspended for a year — and later fired. The team was fined $5 million, the max amount Major League Baseball can penalize a team.
Despite that, the people at the center of the controversy — the Astros players — walked away with nothing. Though MLB’s investigation found that the players explicitly broke the rules, the league decided to grant players immunity for honest testimony.
While getting players to talk openly about the scandal was important, many wondered why MLB went out of its way to make sure the players wouldn’t be punished.