Christopher Correa, Computer Intrusion, Texas 2015

A former St. Louis Cardinals official has pleaded guilty to accessing the Houston Astros’ computers without authorization, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas and Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner of the FBI Houston Division.

Christopher Correa, 35, of St. Louis, was charged in a criminal information with five counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer.

Correa, who was employed by the St. Louis Cardinals from 2009 to July 2015 and became the director of Baseball Development in 2013, pleaded guilty to all counts as charged in a Houston federal court today.

Between March 2013 and at least March 2014, Correa illicitly accessed the Ground Control and/or e-mail accounts of others in order to gain access to Astros proprietary information.

The Astros and the Cardinals, like many teams, measured and analyzed in-game activities to look for advantages that may not have been apparent to their competitors. To assist their efforts, the Astros operated a private online database called Ground Control to house a wide variety of confidential data, including scouting reports, statistics and contract information.

As part of his plea agreement, Correa admitted that he was able to obtain an Astros employee’s password because that employee had previously been employed by the Cardinals. When he left the Cardinals organization, the employee had to turn over his Cardinals-owned laptop to Correa along with the laptop’s password. Having that information, Correa was able to access the now-Astros employee’s Ground Control and e-mail accounts using a variation of the password he used while with the Cardinals.

Correa later intruded into that account during the July 31, 2013, trade deadline and viewed notes of the Astros’ trade discussions with other teams. He also viewed the team’s scouting crosscheck page, which listed prospects who were seen by higher level scouts.

The plea agreement details a selection of instances in which Correa unlawfully accessed the Astros’ computers. For example, during 2013, he was able to access scout rankings of every player eligible for the draft. He also viewed, among other things, an Astros weekly digest page which described the performance and injuries of prospects who the Astros were considering, and a regional scout’s estimates of prospects’ peak rise and the bonus he proposed be offered.

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