The Houston Astros have a number of villains on their roster whose names baseball fans know, but on Sunday the spotlight was on one whose name may not be so well known – Alex Cintrón.
Cintrón has been an Astros coach since 2017, becoming her striking coach last year. He was the man in the Astros dugout who unfortunately saw Oakland Athletics outfielder Ramón Laureano before Sunday’s brawl between the two teams. Laureano was hit twice by Astros pitchers on Sunday and was angry the second time. After a bit of juggling when Laureano took his base, Cintrón said something against him and advised him to bring it through.
Laureano roared the Astros dugout. Cintrón was then spotted behind a row of Astros when chaos erupted on the field. Laureano will definitely be expelled. MLB set clear expectations at the start of the season about this sort of thing during a coronavirus short-lived season. Socially distant baseball can’t erase bench brawls.
But much of the conversation has also centered on Cintrón who, as a coach, probably needs to know better than to escalate a situation like this. He is also likely to receive a significant suspension. If Joe Kelly of the Dodgers got eight games for haunting the Astros and throwing pitches at the heads (but not hitting) two Astros hits, well, then this should get worse in the eyes of MLB.
While we await penalties, there have been many eyes on Cintrón’s past – specifically for his role in the Astros’ false scandal and an incident with the Yankees in last year’s playoffs.
A brawl broke out Sunday between the A’s and Astros after Ramon Laureano accused Alex Cintrón in the Astros dugout. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
The role of Alex Cintrón in Astros cheat scandal
Before becoming an Astros coach, Cintrón had a well-known path: He played parts of nine seasons in the major leagues with the Diamondbacks, White Sox, Orioles and Nationals. He was not a great player – the highlight of his career was hitting 317 with 13 homers in 2003 for the D-backs – but worked his way up into the Astros coaching staff. He started as an assistant coach, translator and forward in 2017. He was promoted after the 2018 season to his current role as a striking coach.
It’s 2017 that’s most interesting, because that’s when the Astros cheats scheme took place. While he did not get as many headlines as Carlos Beltran as Alex Cora, Cintrón was also very involved, according to the Wall Street Journal report.
Astros’ system – called “Codebreaker” – was discussed by Tom Koch-Weser, an Astros analyst who makes advance reports on opposing teams, in an email received by the Journal. In the email, Koch-Weser specifically mentions Cintrón as part of the scheme. From the article on Codebreaker:
“I do not want to correspond too much electronically about ‘the system’, but Cora / Cintron / Beltran have driven a culture driven by Bregman / Vigoa last year and I think it works,” Koch-Weser wrote. ‘I have no proof that it worked, but we get really good dope over throws and laziness. This information will, if not yet, ultimately yield great results in our favor once players become accustomed to the implementation. “Alex Cintrón was an assistant coach at Astros in 2017 and is now its beat coach. He was believed to be involved in sending information from the video room to the dugout, a trusted person said.”
Like Astros players, Cintrón was never punished for his role in the cheats scheme. He kept his job as coach of Astros Battle, even after manager AJ Hinch was fired, then fired and the Astros hired Dusty Baker as manager.
Astros hit coach Alex Cintron, center, has been in the midst of three controversies. (Photo by John McCoy / Getty Images)
Alex Cintrón’s previous beef with the Yankees
The A’s are not the only team that does not like Cintrón. If you recall the 2019 ALCS, the Yankees and Astros were pretty angry at each other, with accusations of whistles and sign-stealing blowing the way out of the Astros’ path before the 2017 scandal itself was discovered.
In Game 1 of that series, things got heated up between Cintrón and Yankees coach of third base Phil Nevin. According to SNY, Cintrón flipped Nevin off and Nevin responded by telling Alex Bregman, “Tell your f — ing hit coach that I’ll kick his f — ing ass.”
At that point, some in baseball circles had already fixed Cintrón as part of the Astros’ cheat ring. While the Astros were wiped out by MLB from the whistleblowing accusations last postseason, that did not mean the Yankees believed them. As SNY wrote at the time, “The Yankees believed that their ALCS opponent was cheating, and that, according to a source, Cintrón was the one fighting the fight.”
These are three Astros controversies in which Cintrón has been involved – but this is the first time he is one of the primary characters. It is probably the first time he has been punished by the league.
