The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Jim Crane Addresses The Punishment Levied On Astros

Episode Date: January 13, 2020

Jim Crane Addressed The Media after MLB levied punishment based on the investigation into the Astros use of video equipment to steal signs. Crane's comments include his decision to fire General Manager Jeff Luhnow and Manager AJ Hinch

Working good. First, let me start out. Thank you all for coming on short notice. Today is a very difficult day for the Houston Astros. MLB did a very thorough investigation, and the Astros fully cooperated. We accept their decisions and findings and penalties. We work very hard to build this organization for our employees, fans, sponsors, community, and the city to all be proud.

With that being said, there's two very important points I want to make today. I have higher standards for the city and the franchise, and I'm going above and beyond MLB's penalty. Today, I have made the decision to dismiss A.J. Hinch and Jeff Loonow. We need to move forward with a clean slate. And the Astros will become stronger, a stronger organization because of this today. You can be confident that we will always do the right thing and will not have this happen again on my watch. With that being said, you guys have a copy of the Commissioner's report.

I'll be glad to answer questions. Okay, raise you here and David Barron right here. Was the decision to fire Luno or not to bring them back Luno and Hensure? after their suspensions made, after the received of the report, it was this a decision that you made prior to today? Yeah, we didn't really find out about the decision, the final decision until on the weekend, and after I had their findings,

I decided to make that decision today. Okay, Chandler right here. Jim, who will run baseball operations and who will run the team in the interim? Well, we'll quickly look for someone to manage the team, As soon as we get out of here today, certainly we have possibilities internally. We'll also look outside. The baseball operation, I will oversee.

We have a number of capable guys that can run that operation. A number of them were interviewed for GM spots, one in particular. And so we'll sit down today and start working on that and move as quickly as we can. Next question. Jim, how did both AJ and Jeff take your decision when you told them? Hi, I just spoke to both of them just a few minutes ago. They've got their letters from baseball. You know, AJ was upset.

I think he understands the consequences. And, you know, he said, I'm sorry, and, you know, I'll do whatever I can to help the team. Jeff was a little bit shorter. He was traveling, and so I just informed him, and he said, okay, and he'd get with me when he gets back. Okay, Christy right here. Do you think that any of the players should have been suspended for this incident? No players will be suspended from this. Okay, Mark, over here.

Can you just go into why you decided to go ahead and fire Jeff and AJ? Well, I felt that with what came out in the report, they both had responsibilities, Jeff running the baseball operation, and overseeing AJ and all of those people associated with that. and AJ on the bench and was aware, if you read the report, it's pretty clear. AJ didn't endorse it, and neither did Jeff. Neither one of them started this, but neither one of them did anything about it, and that's how we came to the conclusion. I know that you said at the start that you've accepted what baseball has done.

Do you feel like the punishment fit the crime? Listen, it's the stiffest penalty that any team has ever taken or given, and we accept that. We're going to move forward in a positive way. I'll let the commissioner determine how he handles the rest of it. Who's staying in order, Kim, you're next. Jim, can you talk about how soon you think that all the changes you'll be able to be up to speed as an organization?

How much of a drop-off of any you expect with this? I've been sitting in a few meetings last week in particular on the mediation and the contract. so we don't have signed. So I don't think it's going to take long. We've got a short window here. We've got to get ready for spring training February 15th or sooner. We'll work very hard to try to take care of the team first

and then look at the baseball operations. As I said, we've got good leaders in a number of those spots. And so it's just a manner of organizing and managing that staff for the next 30 days. And hopefully we can get someone to take the point. Okay, Bob. Jim, does this taint the World Series championship? And what do you say to the fans right now? Well, I think absolutely not.

I think, you know, we've had a very good team for a number of years before 17. We were turning the corner, 18, 19. We have a very good team on the field this year. You know, I think we'll have a great season. We've got a lot of great players still. And I don't think it taints it. Okay, Jake. Jerome.

Jim, in the report, Rob Manfred described the culture of the baseball operations department as very problematic. What was your reaction to reading that assessment? I think, you know, I don't agree with that. I think we've got a lot of people here. We've got a lot of great people. We have over 400 people working here, and they work hard. And I think there was some isolated situations that led to that.

we have one of the best business operations in baseball and you know i think if we did have any problems we'll quickly define those problems and and move forward in a very positive way i don't think there's anything difficult we had one of the best baseball operations in you know in the business and and got a lot of great results so that didn't happen with one or two people that happened with a lot of good people and so we'll move forward to handle that and a very professional manner And it's not an extremely big organization, so I think if there's any problems, we'll root them out and we'll fix it. Okay, Jerome and then, Jesus. Ed Jim, you've always said you take pride in doing things the right way and having an organization that runs in a certain way.

And you've also talked about AJ and Jeff as two of your greatest hires and what they meant to you. How personally disappointed are you that they allowed this to go on? Listen, when I found out I was very upset. You know, we want to be known as playing by the rules. We broke the rules. We accept the punishment. And we're going to move forward. It's very unfortunate.

As I said earlier, if you read the report, neither one of those guys implemented this or pushed it through the system. It really came from the bottom up. It's pretty clear in the report how that happened. but neither one of them did anything about it. And that's unfortunate and the consequences are severe. Okay, Jesus and then Brian. Jim, you're a self-made man.

Your organization rose from the top almost in your image. How disappointing was it to you that they did take these shortcuts that season? I didn't hear the last part of that. How disappointed is it to you that they did take these shortcuts in that season that you won the title? Well, it's upsetting. I think, you know, there's nothing that's clear to suggest it affected the outcome. I think you could be all over the place with this, but listen, it's, again, as I said before, we've got a great team. You know, I feel we had the best team on the field then. I thought we had a great team in 18. Things didn't fall away. We got down to the last game in the World Series, and that didn't fall our way. So baseball is tough to win. And again, I think we have a great organization. We have a great team still. We'll continue to work on that.

But listen, none of this is fun, and I'm not happy that it happened, but it happened and we're dealing with it. Okay. Brian. Jim, about your search for a manager. Do you expect to have a full-time manager by the time spring training starts, or could you have an interim manager up to that? I think that could go either way.

It just depends. As I said, I really haven't worked on that. We've been focused on visiting to. today and getting this behind us, it could go either way. I mean, certainly we have a bench coach that's capable. We'll certainly look outside, but we know we've got to have somebody in charge when we go to spring training, so that could be interim. I don't have the answer yet, but we'll make it work.

Okay, Adam, go ahead. Excuse me, Jim. Did the Brandon Tubman incident in the fallout from that have any play any factor in the dismissal of Jeff? No, I think those are totally two separate incidents. You know, Brandon was here. We dealt with that when that story went down. It was unfortunate.

We didn't have all the facts when we made a decision. We apologized for that. And Brandon's no longer an employee. Okay, Christy. Going forward, do you think there can be anything like an accountability system or anything you're going to implement so something like this could never happen again? Yeah, I think, you know, with the technology coming into the dugout, as it did with the replay system.

You know, that kind of triggered some of this and with the replays very close and sometimes even in the dugout. We're going to put some checks and balances in. We're going to study the rule book, and we're going to have a compliance program in place to make sure, as I said earlier, that this doesn't happen again.

Okay, David. Then Chandler. There's a reference on the report to several junior employees who may have had knowledge of this scheme. Will any discipline be taken for them or has any discipline been taken in that regard against them? We're still reviewing that. You know, lower-level employees,

we're taking direction from senior, either players or coaches. And so, you know, my opinion, it's going to be difficult to hold them to the same standard we hold to the leaders, but we'll review that after today and deal with that shortly. Okay, Chandler. Jim, Jeff hired a lot of the people below him then the organization, same with AJ on his coaching staff. Given the drastic action you took with those two, does that make it, for lack of a better word,

would you want a clean house? Would you want to just start with a brand new foundation to kind of get rid of everything that transpired? Well, I don't think it's a big number of people in the baseball operations that were engaged with that on a daily basis. So I don't think it's a house cleaning. I think if you want to talk about house cleaning, I don't think the manager and the general manager have gotten fired in the same day. I think that's a pretty big house cleaning and we'll work from there. Go Francisco next. Mr. Crane, you talked about the fact that this is obviously not a very happy day for you

in the organization, a personal level, but at the same time being that Mr. Luno was an architect of this transformation, almost bringing this team from the National League to the American League, does it also concern you about the uncertainty that the future has an immediate future of the Astros? And if so, why? And if it doesn't concern you, why it doesn't concern you? Well, certainly it concerns me. I'm losing two key people that are very bright and did a lot of great things here. Whatever you want to say, AJ had five unbelievable seasons here.

And Jeff put in the foundation that really changed how baseball operations work around the league. And, you know, people can talk about the people that left or weren't hired back. But there's also a lot of people out there that got promoted. into GM jobs that came out of this environment. So I don't think it was all bad. I think it was a lot, a lot of good, and some unfortunate things that happened here. When you really break it down,

didn't make a lot of sense to why we were even doing it. So I'm optimistic. As I said, this thing is deep here. There's a lot of smart people here. I think we'll have a speed bump here. I'm not to make this light, but this is a thing. but this is a tough day. But can we recover? Absolutely. And we'll have a great team next year. Okay. Jim, there's been other situations right over here. There's been other sign stealing allegations

lobbied against this team. Did you ever ask Jeff and AJ about those at those times? And what did they say to you about them? Well, first of all, there was a lot of interviews done. I wasn't in the interviews. I think there's a lot of information out there that this was a problem within baseball. Commissioner put out a warning in 2017. There was a couple teams fined. Listen, it's clear when you hear the guys talk that, you know, they were doing, you know, talking about what other teams did and this, that, and the other. I have no proof of any of that, and it's not my job to investigate that. The commissioner assured me that, you know, every team and every allegation will be checked out, and he'll conduct the same investigation he conducted on us, and I'm

focused on the Astros, and that's all I'm going to talk about. Okay, Mark over here. Jim, and all your business dealings prior to owning the Astros, not owning the Astros, is this your toughest day ever? This is a tough day. I've had a lot of tough days over the year, But yeah, this is this is tough one.