Chris Correa

Christopher Correa

• Schools University of Michigan, University of Illinois, Hampshire College

Biographical Information

Chris Correa is a former St. Louis Cardinals scouting director who in 2015 was charged with, and later pleaded guilty to, multiple counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer. He had been accused of hacking into the Houston Astros' computer databases to acquire confidential information. He had worked for the Cardinals since 2009, first as a quantitative analyst and later was Manager of Baseball Development. He became scouting director in 2014. During that time, he was working with Jeff Luhnow, who later joined the Astros organization as GM. Familiar with the type of database Luhnow had put together in St. Louis, Correa managed to gain unauthorized access to to the Astros' computer system in 2013 and 2014 and obtained confidential infiormation as a result.

On July 18, 2016, he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes to a 46-month prison sentence followed by two years of supervised release, and to a fine of $279,037. The Judge noted that while Correa had admitted his guilt and expressed remorse, the acts were all intentional and badly damaging to those whose accounts were hacked, hence the steep sentence. On January 30, 2017, Commissioner Rob Manfred levied additional punishment, forcing the Cardinals to pay $2 million in damages to the Astros, and surrendering their two top remaining picks in the 2017 amateur draft - #46 and #75 - to Houston. Finally, Correa was handed a lifetime ban from baseball. Manfred explained that while Correa acted alone and without reference to his superiors, he judged that the Cardinals were vicariously responsible for his actions and derived some unfair advantage because of them, a ruling that the team accepted. Manfred stated: "This unprecedented award by the Commissioner's office sends a clear message of the severity of these actions."

Further Reading

• "Ex-Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa pleaded guilty to hacking Astros", USA Today Sports, January 8, 2016. [1]
• "MLB strips Cardinals of draft picks, fines them $2 million for Astros hack", USA Today Sports, January 30, 2017. [2]
• Jenifer Langosch and Brian McTaggart: "Astros awarded Cardinals' first two Draft picks: Penalties assessed for illegal breach of Houston's baseball ops database", mlb.com, January 30, 2017. [3]
• Bob Nightengale: "For Cardinals, stain stings more than punishment for Astros hack", USA Today Sports, January 30, 2017. [4]