Major League Baseball said it is looking into an incident during Game 1 of the AL Championship Series in which an Astros employee was seen with a camera in the photographer’s pit adjacent to the Houston dugout.
MLB told Boston Metro, which was first to report on the incident, that the matter was being handled internally.
The Astros, major league sources tell ESPN’s Buster Olney, had deployed the employee to monitor whether the Red Sox were doing anything outside the rules on their side of the field.
The incident — which led to the employee being removed by security — is expected to lead to nothing more than a fine for the Astros, according to sources. But it is also expected to be a topic of a wider discussion at next month’s general manager’s meetings on the use of electronic devices during games.
Boston is managed by Alex Cora, who is in his first year on the job after serving as bench coach last season for the World Champion Astros.
“I’m aware of something going on, but I haven’t been briefed,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said after Tuesday’s Game 3. “I’m worried about the game.”
Cora said the situation is something for Major League Baseball to handle.
“Somebody mentioned (it) to me right now. That’s an MLB issue,” Cora said. “They’ll do what they have to do. But I just heard today.”
When pressed on whether he had any concerns about signs being stolen, Cora added: “I’m always concerned about that throughout the season. So I mean, we do a good job changing sequences and paying attention to details. And we don’t get caught up in the whole paranoia thing of the signs. We try to slow it down. If we feel there’s something going on, we switch the signs.”