Here's why MLB didn't punish any players in Astros sign-stealing scandal
MLB believed Astros players could claim they didn't know using technology to steal signs was wrong.
Really?
Two reasons:
1. The MLBPA would have put up a fight, so they quickly cut a deal of Immunity for the players in exchange for honest information about exactly what happened.
2. The victims of the sign stealing were 20 other teams in baseball and the 2017 Astros players in question are now spread out over 18 different teams. Penalizing the players involved would mean suspending players from the victim teams, like the Dodgers, Blue Jays, Rays, etc. The Mets got swept in Houston with banging on cans being easily heard as some guy teed off on a monster HR off a rookie. And because the Astros cheated, the Mets lost their manager, and if players were suspended, would lose their LF/3B and CF? Hardly seems fair.
Also, the Rose comparisons are ridiculously stupid. The MLB rulebook says certain things are illegal, but only lists the full penalties for two things: PEDs/Drugs, and gambling. It's not like scuffing a baseball, or just being a jerk, or even PEDs with Bonds and company cheating pre-rule changes. It's the most cut and dry thing in the history of baseball:
For the last 98 years the rule has been "Gamble and you're permanently banned forever." It was the rule for 67 years when Rose got busted. MLB makes big signs that say "TO PLAYERS AND MANAGERS
THIS IS PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL RULE 21, REGARDING GAMBLING, etc. Read it Carefully" and they are posted in multiple places in every MLB and Minor League clubhouse, and have been every single day at every single facility Pete Rose ever set foot in. For the entirety of his 30 years in baseball.
Any defense of Pete Rose's suspension from baseball is stupid. He was told "Gamble and you're banned for life" multiple times a day for 30 consecutive years, and he did it anyway.