Mike Fiers, a pitcher who played for the Astros in 2017, told the Athletic last November that the team used a video camera in center field to film the opposing team’s signs to its pitchers. Players or team staffers watching the live camera feed then signaled to the batter what kind of pitch was coming. MLB opened an investigation, concluding in January 2020 that Fiers’s allegations were correct. The Astros’ manager and general manager were suspended for the 2020 season (the team fired both on the day their suspensions were announced). The team was fined the maximum allowable $5 million and stripped of its first- and second-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts.