MLB News: Cardinals Fire Correa Amid Hacking Scandal

St. Louis Cardinals’ lawyer Jim Martin said the team has fired scouting director Chris Correa on Thursday amid allegations of hacking Houston Astros’ computer network. St. Louis Post first reported that Correa, whose activities were being scrutinized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in relation to the unauthorized breach of Astros’ player personnel database, was let go by the Cardinals after a team-imposed leave of absence.

However, Martin declined to state anything about whether the move was related to FBI’s ongoing investigation saying “there will not be any details provided regarding the situation” since it is a personnel matter. The Cardinals also declined to say why Correa was fired, but confirmed that the termination was a day earlier before the team imposed a leave of absence to the scouting director.

"At this time, it's still an ongoing investigation and there's really nothing more I can add at this point," Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said via St. Louis Post.

The Major League Baseball said in a statement last month that it was aware about FBI’s investigation into the “illegal breach of the Astros’ baseball operations database.” The hack was first reported in June 2014 after some of the trade talk was published online. Astros, who relies heavily on analytics in their evaluation of players, use an online database called Ground Control to store exclusive information.

Correa’s attorney Nicholas Williams said in a statement that the ex-scouting director “denies any illegal conduct” and instead pointed at the Astros.

"The relevant inquiry should be what information did former St. Louis Cardinals employees steal from the St. Louis Cardinals organization prior to joining the Houston Astros, and who in the Houston Astros organization authorized, consented to, or benefited from that roguish behavior," Williams said.

Correa, who was promoted to director of amateur scouting during the offseason, had worked for the Cardinals since 2009 and was previously the Astros’ manager of baseball development before being promoted. He was also assigned to the department in charge of statistical analysis.

Former Cardinals GM Jeff Lunhow left the team before it was accused of hacking into the Astros’ servers. Lunhow, who managed the Cardinals’ scouting and player development department, joined the club in December 2011 along with another ex-Cardinal employee Sig Mejdal, who was a former NASA employee and analytics expert.