How does Houston Astros punishment affect San Diego Padres? Was it enough?
By Jake Mastroianni
LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 01: Manager A.J. Hinch of the Houston Astros celebrates after defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 in game seven to win the 2017 World Series at Dodger Stadium on November 1, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) /
We look at how the punishment for the Houston Astros affects the San Diego Padres and whether or not the punishment was enough.
The San Diego Padres and other teams should be furious with what the Houston Astros did, and Major League Baseball showed their displeasure by handing down their punishment on Monday.
Houston GM Jeff Lunhow and manager A.J. Hinch were suspended for one season and later were fired.
But the biggest part of the punishment was the Astros losing their first and second-round picks for the 2020 and 2021 MLB Draft.
Now the first question is whether or not this punishment was harsh enough?
In my opinion, I don't think it was. Lunhow and Hinch being suspended for a year was obvious and probably should have been worse.
Their actions altered the history of the game in a significant way with it being confirmed they cheated during the World Series that they won.
Losing the draft picks is a big deal and will certainly hurt the future of the franchise, but I don't feel that the people involved were punished nearly enough.
How does this affect the Padres?
The second part of this is the affect it has on the Padres and other MLB teams.
In all honesty, this probably has very little affect on San Diego. It will move up their second and third-round picks in 2020 a spot, which is nice.
Depending on what the new GM they hire decides to do, some Astros players could become available.
Houston still has a really good team that could compete for a World Series in the next two years — even if they don't cheat.
But perhaps they look to get a jump start on the rebuild because of this punishment and decide to trade off some players coming off the books soon for prospects — I'm dreaming a bit here, I know.
I'm sure the Padres would have some interest in George Springer and Michael Brantley for the outfield.
Again, that's likely a dream scenario.
This will certainly make the Astros a worse team in the future, which helps out all of baseball as Houston has been a dominant force in the playoffs for several years now.
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What are your thoughts on the punishment given to the Astros? Do you think it was enough? Will it have any affect on the Padres? Let us know in the comments below.