Ex-Astros GM Jeff Luhnow ‘deleted phone data during sign-stealing probe’

Then-Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow reportedly deleted data from his phone in anticipation of giving the device to Major League Baseball investigators during the 2019 probe into allegations of impermissible sign stealing by the team’s players two years earlier.

Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch were both suspended for a season by MLB and fired by the Astros on January 13, 2020, after league investigators found that Houston players were stealing opposing catchers’ signs en route to the club’s first title in 2017.

Now author Evan Drellich is reporting in his upcoming book, ‘Winning Fixes Everything,’ that Luhnow was accused of deleting digital information pertaining to the investigation but told MLB officials that he was removing sensitive photos of his wife.

‘I had pictures on my phone of my wife giving birth to our son, and I deleted those at her request prior to handing over my phone,’ Luhnow said in a statement published by The Athletic. ‘When asked by the investigators, I told them about this. Not one work related item was deleted and every email and text I ever sent was available to MLB and the Astros through my work computer.’

However, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred refused to accept Luhnow’s claims of innocence in a letter he sent less than two weeks before suspending the Astros GM.

‘Your credibility is further impacted by the fact that you permanently deleted information from your phone and its backups in anticipation that my investigators would seek to search your phone,’ Manfred wrote to Luhnow. ‘You did not tell my investigators that you had done this until they confronted you about it in your second interview. While you explained that you were simply deleting sensitive personal photographs, I have no way to confirm that you did not delete incriminating evidence.’

Drellich is reporting that sources say that Luhnow wiped all but one backup from his phone, and other data, such as call logs, was missing as well.

Luhnow was also confronted by MLB over the deletions in a second interview with officials, according to Drellich, who adds that the 56-year-old executive admitted to deleting the photos of his wife the night before his first interview. 

He reportedly told investigators that he made the deletions despite being required not to remove data from his phone because he didn’t trust MLB.

MLB spokespeople did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.

The sign-stealing scandal has plagued the Astros since 2020, when Hinch, Luhnow and former Houston bench coach Alex Cora were all given suspensions. Cora, by that time, was managing the Boston Red Sox, and he has since returned to that role following his seven-month ban, while Hinch is now managing the Detroit Tigers. Luhnow, meanwhile, owns soccer clubs in Mexico and Spain.

The scheme was elaborate, but hardly anything new to baseball. The 1951 New York Giants, for instance, were accused of a similar scheme involving a telescope at Harlem’s Polo Grounds. Sign stealing is a legal and time-honored baseball tradition as long as it is done with the naked eye – say, by a baserunner standing on second. Using technology is prohibited, and that is what the 2017 Astros were accused of doing.

The Astros had a camera in the outfield directed towards home plate at Houston’s Minute Maid Park. There was also a corresponding television monitor installed near the home dugout, where staff would interpret and decode opposing catchers’ hand signals to the pitcher.

Upon stealing the signs, players in the Astros’ dugout would relay the upcoming pitch to teammates in the batter’s box by banging on a trash can.

Luhnow is also accused in Drellich’s reporting of notifying Astros co-workers in 2019 about MLB investigators looking at cell phone records. However, Luhnow denies encouraging anyone to delete data to avoid detection by the league.

‘I cooperated fully in the investigation and never discouraged anyone from doing the same,’ Luhnow said in his statement.

Manager AJ Hinch (left) and GM Jeff Luhnow (right) were both fired and suspended in 2020 for their roles in the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal during the 2017 season