Cardinals Ordered to Give Astros 2 Draft Picks, Fined $2 Million for Hack

Major League Baseball ruled on Jan. 30 that the St. Louis Cardinals must forfeit two draft picks to the Houston Astros and pay the Astros $2 million as a result of their hacking scandal.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Derrick Goold first reported the punishment, while ESPN's Buster Olney specified that the Cardinals would lose the Nos. 56 and 75 overall picks in the 2017 draft.

Yahoo Sports' Big League Stew provided a copy of the full findings by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred:

The Astros released a statement on Twitter regarding the league's decision:

"

The Houston Astros support MLB's ruling and award of penalties. This unprecedented award by the Commissioner's Office sends a clear message of the severity of these actions. Our staff has invested a great deal of time in support of the government, legal and league investigations and are pleased to have closure on this issue. We are looking forward to focusing our attention on the 2017 season and the game of baseball.

"

Later in the day, Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak issued a statement on the punishment, via Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Last January, Chris Correa, a former scouting director for the Cardinals, pleaded guilty to illegally accessing the Astros' player database and email system. A federal judge sentenced Correa to 46 months in prison in July.

According to the Associated Press (via the New York Times), prosecutors alleged Correa accessed the Astros' scouting information in 2013 ahead of the MLB draft. He also viewed internal communications regarding Houston's ongoing trade discussions.

Correa, who was banned from MLB for life by Manfred as part of his punishment, issued a statement on Jan. 31 via his Twitter account:

Manfred later responded to Correa in a statement of his own, via Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal:

"I assure you, from our internal investigation, the FBI investigation and MLB's investigation, nobody could connect the dots to another employee," Mozeliak told Jim Bowden and Jim Duquette of MLB Network Radio on Sunday, via Jonathan Soveta of TheScore.com.

Rotoworld's Matthew Pouliot applauded the severity of the punishment MLB levied against the Cardinals:

Baseball America's Ben Badler shared a different opinion:

The Boston Herald's Evan Drellich thought a few questions remained unanswered after the league's decision:

Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan noted the $2 million fine is relatively minor since the Cardinals earn $300 million a year. It's the maximum amount the commissioner can fine a team under the "best interests of baseball" clause, per USA Today's Jacob B. Lourim.

Taking away the Cardinals' top two picks may have carried a more significant hit to St. Louis in previous years, but the team surrendered its 2017 first-rounder when it signed Dexter Fowler last month.

Even if critics contend MLB didn't come down hard enough on the Cardinals, NBC Sports' Craig Calcaterra argued Correa's 46-month prison sentence will be a strong deterrent  to any individual who contemplates hacking an MLB team's database in the future.