MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has had a rocky road overseeing the league for the last decade, but it seems the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal of 2017, and how he handled it, is his biggest regret during his tenure.
There have been quite a few moments during MLB’s century-long history that left a black on the league. However, one of the worst and most recent was the Houston Astros using an elaborate sign-stealing scheme during the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
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Sign-stealing is nothing new in the sport, however, the way the Houston Astros went about it, and the results it delivered — a dominant run in 2017 that led to a World Series victory — was a truly ugly low point for MLB. However, what further upset many baseball fans was the way that the league and its commissioner, Rob Manfred, chose to go about investigating the scandal.
Instead of holding all parties involved accountable, Manfred gave all of the Houston Astros players that took part immunity. It led to manager AJ Hinch, general manager Jeff Luhnow, and the organization taking all the punishment from the situation. It was a decision that received a great deal of blowback from observers of the sport since the players benefited as much as anyone from their exploits in cheating their way to a world title in 2017.
Manfred on Houston Astros immunity during scandal investigation: ‘Maybe not my best decision ever’
On Wednesday, TIME published an exclusive interview with the MLB boss, and one of the most interesting takeaways from the piece is Manfred admitting he regrets how he handled the Houston Astros scandal six years ago.
“There are some decisions that I would like to have back. Some of the decisions surrounding the Houston situation, I would like to have those back. I mean, if I could take back the rather flip comment I made about the World Series trophy at one time, I’d take that one back. There have been times, particularly in times of pressure, when I look back, taking a little more time might have led to a different outcome.
“I’m not sure that I would have approached it with giving players immunity. Once we gave players immunity, it puts you in a box as to what exactly you were going to do in terms of punishment. I might have gone about the investigative process without that grant of immunity and see where it takes us. Starting with, I’m not going to punish anybody, maybe not my best decision ever.”
– Rob Manfred
Hinch and Luhnow were suspended and then fired following the investigation into the scandal while the Houston Astros have remained an elite team in MLB. They returned to the World Series three more times following the scandal and won in their most recent appearance in 2022.