Ex-Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow sues team over dismissal for role in cheating scandal: report
Luhnow was fired by the Astros earlier this year
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jeff Luhnow is one of the last people implicated in the Houston Astros cheating scandal to find a new position somewhere in baseball after his ban from baseball expired.
Instead, Luhnow is apparently fighting back against the Astros’ organization alleging in a new lawsuit that the franchise was in breach of contract when they fired him earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
EX-ASTROS MANAGER AJ HINCH APOLOGIZES FOR FAILING TO STOP SIGN-STEALING SCHEME
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The former Astros general manager, who was the architect of the franchise’s resurgence and World Series title in 2017, reportedly alleged that team owner Jim Crane and Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred colluded to make him the scapegoat in the scandal.
Luhnow says the Astros did not fire him for “just cause” and that his termination was a “negotiated result,” according to the Los Angeles Times. The result allowed the team to stay intact, the lawsuit says.
ASTROS FIRE AJ HINCH, JEFF LUHNOW AFTER MLB LEVIES PUNISHMENT FOR ROLES IN SIGN-STEALING
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Manfred’s report in the investigation said that Luhnow denied having knowledge of the scheme, which involved setting up a camera in Minute Maid Park’s center field and having of pitcher and catcher’s signals played into the clubhouse, but referenced an email referring to the “dark-arts, sign-stealing department.” Luhnow reportedly said the email had been sent by the supposed ringleader of the scheme Tom Koch-Weser, an Astros employee.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Luhnow says the three documents used to implicate him in the scandal does not reference any “in-game electronic sign-stealing,” which is what he was punished for.
Luhnow claims that Manfred allowed Koch-Weser to keep his job “in exchange for providing information that would implicate Luhnow,” the newspaper reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to the lawsuit, Luhnow says that the dismissal cost him in $22 million. He has maintained that he had no knowledge of the schemes. Both the Astros and MLB have yet to comment on the lawsuit.
ASTROS PUNISHMENT IN SIGN-STEALING SCANDAL SENDS SHOCKWAVES THROUGHOUT BASEBALL
A.J. Hinch and Alex Cora, who were both implicated in the investigation, are back in baseball as managers of the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox respectively. Carlos Beltran remains without a job.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Houston was in the American League Championship Series in October.