ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Cardinals have terminated the contract of their scouting director after an "imposed leave of absence," a lawyer for the team said Thursday.
James G. Martin declined to comment on the reasons for Chris Correa's separation or any details of an investigation into the hacking of a Houston Astros database.
Martin said the Cardinals were continuing to investigate. He declined to comment when asked whether any employee has admitted hacking the Astros, citing an ongoing governmental investigation.
Correa declined to comment.
"Mr. Correa denies any illegal conduct," his lawyer Nicholas Williams wrote in a statement. "The relevant inquiry should be what information did former St. Louis Cardinals employees steal from the St. Louis Cardinals organization prior to joining the Houston Astros, and who in the Houston Astros organization authorized, consented to, or benefited from that roguish behavior."
Giles Kibbe, an attorney representing the Astros, pointed a reporter to previous denials about appropriating the Cardinals' proprietary information. Those denials were from Kibbe and Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow.
"We stand by all of our previous comments," Kibbe said. "We're looking forward to the conclusion of the FBI's investigation. I stand by all that Jeff has said on this matter."
Correa has admitted hacking into a Houston Astros database but said it was only to verify whether the Astros had stolen proprietary data, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
Correa did not leak any Astros data and is not responsible for additional hacks that the FBI has alleged occurred or leaking any data, the source said.
The FBI, the teams and Major League Baseball have been investigating whether Cardinals employees illegally accessed an Astros' baseball operations database.
Cardinals Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. and General Manager John Mozeliak said last month that they had no knowledge of the hacking until notified by the FBI. Martin has said neither is a target.
Mozeliak confirmed Correa's dismissal Thursday after The Post-Dispatch's initial report of the move.
"I can confirm he was on administrative leave and subsequently was terminated [Wednesday]," Mozeliak said. "At this time it's still an ongoing investigation, and there's really nothing more that I can add at this point."
Former assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Schelp, who represents four other employees, said the same last month. He declined to comment Thursday.
The FBI and U.S. Attorney's office in Houston declined to comment on the source's claims or confirm or deny any investigation.
"The FBI aggressively investigates all potential threats to public and private sector systems. Once our investigations are complete, we pursue all appropriate avenues to hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace," FBI Special Agent Shauna Dunlap wrote in an email.
Luhnow has denied misappropriating any proprietary Cardinals' information.
Correa was promoted to director of amateur scouting this past winter and given the reins to the team's draft approach. Correa oversaw his first draft as the director last month and was involved over the past three weeks with signing draft picks and having them debut throughout the Cardinals' minor-league system.
The Cardinals signed their top 11 picks, spending close to their $7.2 million cap for those picks. The Cardinals and Correa finalized deals with the last two of their top 11 picks this week.
Correa left a doctporate program at the University of Michigan in 2009 to work on a contract basis with Luhnow. He later joined the front office full-time and was promoted to manager of baseball development in 2012.
Luhnow, who headed the Cardinals' scouting and player development department and was a key proponent of the team's Redbird database, was hired as the Astros general manager in December 2011. At least one former Cardinals employee -- Sig Mejdal, a former NASA employee and analytics expert -- joined Luhnow in Houston.
The hack was first reported in June 2014 after some of the trade talk was published online. The Astros rely heavily on analytics in their evaluation of players and use an online database called Ground Control to house proprietary information.
Mozeliak said Jared Odom of baseball operations would handle Correa's day-to-day responsibilities, but added "anything high level will come through my office."
Sports on 07/03/2015