This ought to be entertaining.
Did not age well
Jeff Luhnow sued the Houston Astros for breach of contract on Sunday, alleging that Astros owner Jim Crane and Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred negotiated penalties for the sign-stealing scandal that enabled the team to paint Luhnow as “the scapegoat for the organization” and fire its general manager “in order to save more than $22 million in guaranteed salary.”
In January, after a two-month investigation into how the Astros violated baseball rules by improperly deploying technology to decode signs in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, Manfred suspended Luhnow and Astros manager A.J. Hinch for the 2020 season. Crane then fired Luhnow and Hinch.
Luhnow’s lawsuit uses quotation marks around the word “investigation” and calls it “a negotiated resolution” between Crane and Manfred “that enabled the team to keep its World Series championship, went to great lengths to publicly exonerate Crane, and scapegoated Luhnow for a sign-stealing scandal that he had no knowledge of and played no part in.”
Manfred later suspended Alex Cora, who was the Astros’ bench coach in 2017 and then became manager of the Boston Red Sox, for the 2018 season. The Detroit Tigers hired Hinch as their manager last week, and the Red Sox re-hired Cora.
Luhnow has not found work in baseball. His suit, filed in Texas district court in Houston, alleges the Astros breached their contract with him because none of the conditions that would be considered as just cause for his dismissal actually occurred.
Yes, the first story appeared in the LA Times. Go figure. The Chron followed a little later with a copy of the lawsuit and some more details.
“The commissioner struck a deal with Crane to make Luhnow the scapegoat of the cheating scandal while absolving Crane, the players and others of responsibility,” the suit reads.
[…]
Luhnow’s lawsuit calls the league’s investigation “deeply flawed.” It paints Director of Advance Information Tom Koch-Weser as the scandal’s “actual ringleader” who, according to the suit, blamed Luhnow “to save his own job.”
Major League Baseball’s investigation included 22,000 text and chat messages to or from Koch-Weser that, according to the suit, Manfred “ignored … as part of the effort to scapegoat Luhnow.” Luhnow is not included in any of the messages, according to the petition.
The petition claims that Koch-Weser was the “only witness to claim that Luhnow mentioned electronic sign-stealing.” Luhnow’s lawsuit calls him a “biased source who has zero credibility.”
“The Astros told Koch-Weser that he could keep his job so long as his actions were sanctioned by his supervisors, including Luhnow,” the suit states.
Koch-Weser remained employed by the Astros throughout the 2020 season.
Luhnow’s lawsuit attempted to demonstrate his adherence to baseball’s crackdown on electronic sign-stealing during the 2017-19 seasons. In Major League Baseball’s report, Manfred excoriated Luhnow for “(failing) to take any adequate steps to ensure that his club was in compliance with the rules.”
You can add this to the season ticket holders’ lawsuit as part of your offseason things to watch. The suit was filed in the 125th Civil Court, so congratulations to Judge Kyle Carter for having this hot potato land on his bench. I have no idea if any of these allegations are true, but I can’t wait to find out more.
“I was scapegoated for getting caught cheating?”
Interesting claim.
Looks like he is just unhappy to lose out on the musical chairs.
Pingback: More on the Luhnow lawsuit – Off the Kuff