FBI investigates Cardinals for hacking into Astros' database
— -- The St. Louis Cardinals are being investigated by the FBI for allegedly hacking into networks and trying to steal information about the Houston Astros, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Major League Baseball, the Cardinals and Astros all issued statements Tuesday saying they have cooperated fully with the investigation, which started last year after some information was posted anonymously online.
According to ESPN legal analyst Lester Munson, the federal investigation is close to conclusion.
The Times reported Tuesday that the FBI and Justice Department officials have evidence that Cardinals officials -- who were not identified -- allegedly tapped into the Astros' database and had access to statistics, scouting reports and internal discussions about players, trades and other proprietary information.
"Major League Baseball has been aware of and has fully cooperated with the federal investigation into the illegal breach of the Astros' baseball operations database," the MLB statement said. "Once the investigative process has been completed by federal law enforcement officials, we will evaluate the next steps and will make decisions promptly."
The Astros and Cardinals added that they would not comment further, as it's an ongoing federal investigation.
"Something is going on," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny told reporters before Tuesday's game. "We don't know how to react at all until we have more information, so we don't."
Both the Cardinals and Major League Baseball have been served with subpoenas, the Times reported, but no actions have been taken against the officials under investigation.
In June 2014, the Astros claimed to have been victims of hackers who accessed their servers and published months of internal trade talks on the Internet. It was then that the team began working with the FBI and Major League Baseball security in an effort to identify who was responsible for the breach.
According to the Times, the FBI believes that Cardinals officials gained access to the Astros' database by using a list of passwords associated with Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow dating to his tenure with the Cardinals from 2003 until he left for Houston after the 2011 season.
"I don't know if anybody can say for sure that any system is 100 percent secure, but we're working on it," Luhnow said last year when the team initially addressed the security breach. "We've done a security review and we're going to continue to do more. Obviously information is important in our industry as it is in any industry, and we want to do everything we can to protect the information."
The Astros rely heavily on sabermetrics in their evaluation of players and have been open about the fact that they use an online database to house their proprietary information. Luhnow isn't sure whether that's why they were targeted, but he knows they are far from the only team that stores data about players and trades online.
"One of the things I have been talking to my counterparts about with other clubs is recommending that everybody take a look at their own security systems and make sure they don't get hacked the way that we were," Luhnow said last year.
The U.S. attorney in St. Louis, Richard Callahan, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he is unaware of the investigation. Messages seeking comment from FBI officials in St. Louis, Houston and Washington were not returned.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Brandon McCarthy took to Twitter on Tuesday to suggest his own form of punishment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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