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MLB News and Notes: Red Sox Receive Penalties

Another week by and another week without baseball. We should be about a month into the season at this point, but instead, we have to wonder if we will even see baseball this year.

There still seems to be hope of a season, and the league continues to explore options once restrictions are lifted (including playing in Arizona, Florida and Texas). Despite no games being played, there certainly is still news buzzing around the league. Let’s take a look at some of the news from the last week:

Red Sox Punishments Issued

While most of the spotlight has been on the Houston Astros this year due to the cheating allegations, the Boston Red Sox were also in the midst of an investigation. On Wednesday, the league finally revealed their findings and levied their punishments.

The Red Sox findings center around JT Watkins, an in-game replay operator for Boston. Apparently, Watkins was found to be stealing catcher signals during the 2018 season. Once the signs were stolen, Watkins would relay the sign sequences to players, which could then help relay information of pitches if they reached second base.

This was actually the second time the Red Sox got for a similar issue within two years. In 2017, the Red Sox were found to have been using Apple Watches to decipher the signs and relay the information to the dugout. Many thought that this subsequent issue in 2018 might result in heavy punishment.

As a result of the cheating, Watkins has been suspended, and the organization has been docked their second-round pick in the upcoming draft. The league believes that this was not nearly as much of an issue as the Astros’ cheating, but some still argue that the Red Sox got off pretty easy here.

An additional punishment was announced, and that is of the former Red Sox manager, Alex Cora. The report did not implicate Cora in the Red Sox scandal, so this punishment is solely from his participation in the Astros scandal (he was an assistant coach with Houston in 2017).

Roenicke Named Manager

Another ripple effect from the league’s announcement is the naming of their new manager. The Red Sox had hired bench coach Ron Roenicke as their interim manager, but they wanted to make sure that he was not wrapped up in this scandal.

As he was not mentioned in the report, the Red Sox have removed the interim label, and Roenicke is officially the new Red Sox manager.

Scully Hospitalized

In a bit of scary news, it was announced that former Dodgers’ announcer Vin Scully was hospitalized due to having fallen at his home. He was taken to the hospital, but it appears that he is doing well.

Scully, 92, was the announcer for the Dodgers for a whopping 67 seasons. Crazily, he started his career in 1950 when the team was in Brooklyn and retired in 2016 with the same team across the country in Los Angeles. While it didn’t appear to be overly serious, it is great to hear that he is doing well.

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