Houston Astros

Former Cardinals executive pleads guilty to hacking Astros

Published Jan. 8, 2016 3:45 p.m. ET

foxsports

HOUSTON (AP) The former scouting director of the St. Louis Cardinals has pleaded guilty in federal court to hacking the Houston Astros' player personnel database.

Christopher Correa pleaded guilty Friday to five counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer, access authorities said dated back several years. The 35-year-old Correa was the Cardinals' director of baseball development until he was fired last summer.

Cardinals Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. had blamed the alleged hack on ''roguish behavior'' by a handful of individuals. No one else was charged.

The data breach was first reported in June 2014 when Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow told reporters the team had been the victim of hackers who accessed servers and published online months of internal trade talks. Luhnow is a former employee with the Cardinals.