The Cardinals hacking scandal is back

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Remember that little story a few months ago in which a Cardinals employee hacked into the Astros’ ground control system, which holds all of their scouting information? You know the one. It was allegedly perpetrated by former St. Louis scouting director Chris Correa, who would eventually lose his position with the team. According to Correa, he was just trying to figure out if Jeff Luhnow -- the former Cardinals employee turned Astros general manager -- had any Cardinals information in the Houston information center.

For such an absurd story, it surprisingly disappeared for quite some time, but now it’s back in the headlines yet again. On Friday, Correa was formally indicted. As it turns out, hacking into a rival company’s information is frowned upon in this country. With this latest turn of events, the public has learned a whole lot more about what actually went down. Correa got into a ton of information here, accessing an enormous amount of scouting reports for draft prospects, and even getting into Houston’s trade notes prior to the July 31 deadline.

With all of this damning evidence against him, the former scouting director of the best organization in the game will plead guilty. Now, fans around the game have to be wondering what’s next in this whole saga? At some point, Major League Baseball will investigate what really happened here, and whether Correa was truly working on his own. As for the man himself, he will surely be punished by the US government for this. Although he’s almost certainly not going to get the maximum five-year prison sentence, he also probably isn’t walking away with a slap on the wrist.

As for the Cardinals, even if Correa was working alone, I would imagine there will be some punishment from the league. The last thing Rob Manfred wants is a perception that MLB didn’t do anything about this. It’s still a developing story, and it will be fascinating to see what’s next.

• Drew Storen finally got his wish last night, leaving Jonathan Papelbon’s shadow to head north of the border. Washington receives Ben Revere in the deal.


• The Nationals might not be done either, as rumors came out on Friday saying they could be willing to deal Gio Gonzalez in the right deal.


• The Dodgers are still flexing their financial muscles, but they’re doing it in a much different way. The result has been the most interesting rotation in the league.


• In non-illegal news, could the Cardinals take advantage of the bizarrely nonexistent Justin Upton market and swoop in at the last minute?


• The Rockies are reportedly very interested in Gerardo Parra. The move would make little sense, but it’s the Rockies, so that’s pretty much par for the course.


• Meanwhile, the Giants are well on their way to another successfully even year with the offseason they’ve had thus far.


• By signing Alex Gordon, the Royals are showing they’re still aggressively trying to win. This, of course, makes sense because they are not the Marlins.


• Boston’s new front office has made a ton of moves to improve that roster, but they are still lacking depth and certainty in the outfield.


• Paul Goldschmidt came out of nowhere from a borderline prospect. Has he already turned himself into the best position player in team history?


• The Rays could have found their next great bullpen weapon that will eventually be traded in Alex  Colome.