By Chris Brown / STL Baseball Today | @cbrown_STLBBT | Jan. 11, 2016, 11:45 pm CT
In his first comments since former scouting director Chris Correa pleaded guilty on charges related the team’s unauthorized access of the Houston Astros’ internal database, Cardinals GM John Mozeliak said he did not expect any additional members of the organization to be implicated.
”Yeah, I am (confident),” Mozeliak said Monday following the press conference to announce the signing of Korean reliever Seung-hwan Oh. ”But before we totally engage in answering everything we just need these proceedings (of Correa) to be concluded.”
Corea, who served as the Cardinals scouting director from December 2014 until he was fired this past July, pleaded guilty in federal court in Houston on Friday to accessing to Astros’ player database and email system. The 35-year-old, who had been in the Cardinals organization since 2009, is scheduled to be sentenced on April 11 for five counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer from 2013 to at least 2014. The maximum penalty on each of those five counts includes up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Mozeliak admitted to the media on Monday that he was unaware of the full scope of Correa’s illegal actions until he read the indictment on Friday, and also acknowledged the possibility of sanctions from Major League Baseball on the team as a result while adding he has yet to hear from the Commissioner’s Office on the matter.
The Cardinals GM also discussed how the ordeal could affect the public perception on the organization.
“I certainly am aware of what’s been said, or at least mentioned on social media outlets,” Mozeliak said (via MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch). “Some of it is not very flattering. You think about all the different elements that go into this, and your hope is that in the end, you can still be proud of what we do here. That is sort of how I’m looking at it, and that’s how I want our staff to look at it. I hope, in the end, it’s something that, as my father used to say, ‘This, too, shall pass,’ and we’ll move on from it. People have strong opinions right now, and I understand that.”
More from STL Baseball Today:
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Video via MLB.com.
