The FBI is investigating the St. Louis Cardinals for hacking the Houston Astros computer network to gain information about players, the New York Times reports.
According to the Times, the FBI claims "the hacking was executed by vengeful front-office employees for the Cardinals," whose former GM, Jeff Luhnow, had left the Cardinals for the Astros in 2011.
"The intrusion did not appear to be sophisticated," according to the report.
During his eight years with the Cardinals, Luhnow used the "computer network, called Redbird, to house all of their baseball operations information — including scouting reports and player personnel information." Upon joining the Astros, he implemented a similar infrastructure called "Ground Control."
Cardinals front-office personnel became "concerned that Mr. Luhnow had taken their idea and proprietary baseball information to the Astros," and reviewed a "master list of passwords" used by Luhnow during his time with the Cardinals.
The Times reports the "officials under investigation have not been put on leave, suspended, or fired," and MLB told the Times they are "aware of and [have] fully cooperated" with the investigation.
In fact, the hacking was initially reported to the FBI by MLB, after some of the hacked Astros intel was released to Deadspin in 2014. Upon beginning the investigation, "agents soon found that the Astros' network had been entered from a computer at a home that some Cardinals officials had lived in."
"Major League Baseball has been aware of and has fully cooperated with the federal investigation into the illegal breach of the Astros' baseball operations database," the league said in a statement.
"Once the investigative process has been completed by federal law enforcement officials, we will evaluate the next steps and will make decisions promptly."
On Wednesday, the Cardinals released a statement announcing an internal investigation into the hacking claims.
"We are committed to getting to the bottom of this matter as soon as possible," said CEO William O. DeWitt Jr. "If anyone within our organization is determined to be involved in anything inappropriate, they will be held accountable."
Upon learning the team was the subject of an investigation, the team hired Jim Martin, an attorney who "practices in the areas of white collar criminal defense, corporate governance and compliance and complex business litigation," according to his firm's website.
The "internal inquiry is not yet complete," according to Martin.
"The Houston Astros are actively cooperating with an ongoing federal investigation," the team said Tuesday. "We cannot comment on this matter."
The Astros, who are currently in first place in the AL West, shared the NL Central division with the currently first-place Cardinals until 2013.
On Wednesday, Cynthia Augello, a New York–based attorney who covers commercial litigation, told BuzzFeed News that for the FBI, the investigation should be quick.
"I believe they will subpoena for the computer and then use forensic analysis, that will show every website ever accessed — even if the person wipes the computer," she said.
"In this case, everything appears to have been done locally and it appears everyone is cooperating. It should be a very quick turnaround time."