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Cardinals' Scouting Director Going to Prison

Article: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Chris Correa, former Scouting Director for the St. Louis Cardinals, has been sentenced to 46 months in prison.

Let that sink in for a second, because it's a pretty stiff penalty - nearly four years. The average sentence for drug trafficking is five years, and larceny (theft) is three, so basically he's somewhere in between. It's a pretty big steal, the courts approved an estimate of damages at about $1.7M.

While this resolves the crime, it does not resolve the punishment. As Correa begins acquainting himself with prison life it turns to MLB to figure out what the penalty should be for Cardinals staff committing criminal competitive intelligence against another franchise.

It's hard to gauge what this Commissioner will do because he's kind of all over the map, but I think he will recognize that some tangible, significant penalty must be levied against the Cardinals because of the message that it will send. The individual will do his time, but letting a franchise go unpunished will only create the opportunity to endanger and disown future employees.

And more practically, the Astros will not recoup that money and lost opportunity unless it is delivered from the Cardinals to the Astros by MLB. Here's my suggestion:

- For lost opportunity, give the Cardinals' 1st round pick to Houston.

- For financial loss, give the Astros an amount of cash equal to the Cardinals' 1st round slot money (was about $2.2M in 2016).

It's a real penalty, it's proportionate to the Astros' loss, and it's a good deterrent against espionage.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of MLBDD's writers or editors.

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