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The Red Sox quietly welcomed another cheater into their organization this week.
Former video replay coordinator JT Watkins, who was suspended last season after MLB said it illegally used game streams to help players steal opposing teams’ signs in a few games in 2018, returns on the team as a professional screening staff member, according to the Boston Globe.
Watkins’ return has not been greeted with the same fanfare as the rehiring of manager Alex Cora, who was reintroduced on Tuesday after serving a one-year suspension issued by the league for playing a key role in the theft of electronic panels from the Astros in 2017.
The MLB discovered Cora was the frontrunner in the Astros cheat operation that rocked the sport during the last offseason. Although Cora was manager of the Red Sox during the 2018 championship season, he was not punished by commissioner Rob Manfred for the Boston transgressions.
Instead, all the blame fell on Watkins, the 31-year-old who spent part of three seasons as a catcher and first baseman in the Red Sox farming system before being hired to break down the video of the opponents before the matches.
Watkins denied the allegations, but was nonetheless suspended and banned from serving as a replay room operator until 2021.
The Red Sox were also docked a second round pick as part of the penalty.
During its investigation into the Red Sox, the league also determined that Watkins was a “key participant” in the infamous Apple Watch scandal a year earlier, “when the Red Sox admitted to using a smartwatch to communicate issues. decoded signs of opposing clubs from the replay. up for cover, ”including in a game against the Yankees.
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