Texas Rangers: Penalties for Houston Astros cheating opens up AL West

The MLB has finally handed down its punishment for the Houston Astros cheating scandal of 2017. Does this open up the AL West for the Texas Rangers?

Major League Baseball handed down their penalties to the Houston Astros following a length investigation of allegations that Houston used in stadium technology to steal signs during the 2017 season. The penalties are some of the harshest seen in the MLB and will have an impact on the Astros in 2020 and for a few years beyond. While it’s disappointing to see this happen in Major League Baseball, the Astros penalties could open up a competitive AL West and benefit the Texas Rangers.

As far as the punishments go, these are some of the harshest we’ve seen in the history of the game.

Manager AJ Hinch – Suspended for 1 year

GM Jeff Luhnow – Suspended for 1 year

Draft Picks – Astros forfeit 1st and 2nd round picks in 2020 and 2021 drafts

Fine – Astros organization fined $5 million

The fine is a bit of a non-starter. While $5 million is a ton of money, it doesn’t affect their international bonus pool nor their payroll so it basically just hurts the owners’ wallets. Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic ($) note that this is the maximum fine allowed in the MLB constitution.

Around 2:00 PM on Monday, Jim Crane, owner and chairman of the Astros, announced that both AJ Hinch and Jeff Luhnow have been dismissed from the organization.

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Impact on the AL West in 2020

The immediate impact of the Astros punishment will be the suspension of Manager AJ Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow for the entirety of the season which has now led to them being fired by the Houston Astros. While this move doesn’t impact the playing talent on the field, Hinch is regarded as one of the better managers in Major League Baseball and Houston will suffer from not having him in the clubhouse and dugout throughout the 2020 season.

Luhnow, like Hinch, is a talent front office exec that deserves a lot of credit for constructing the rosters that Houston has had over the past few seasons. Beyond that though, a GM has an impact on the day-to-day operations of a team like Houston including being one of the most prominent voices in the decision making process.

These punishments will be detrimental to the Astros this season. Houston has won the AL West three consecutive seasons but was expected to face competition from the A’s in 2020 after Houston lost ace Gerrit Cole in free agency this offseason. Houston still possesses one of the best lineups in the game but there are some questions about a weakened and aging rotation headlined by 36-year olds, Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke.

The A’s finished 10 games back of Houston in 2019 but were expected to close the gap this season pre-dismissal of Hinch and Luhnow. This only adds to that speculation. As far as the Texas Rangers are concerned, they were looking to boost their ability to compete in 2020 and have done so overhauling their rotation as well as filling a number of holes in the lineup. The Angels have also improved significantly meaning the AL West only has one truly rebuilding team in the Mariners.

Texas will still be fighting an uphill battle to chase the Astros and A’s who still have top to bottom better rosters than the Rangers. But still, the impact that this could have on Houston is hard to quantify at this point and definitely makes the AL West a more open division. If Texas can add another impact piece, they have a case to be made that they can compete in the division, especially if the rotation upgrades have the impact hoped.