The Boston Red Sox might not have broken any rules Saturday night in San Diego, but they still managed to stumble into a controversy that has “bad look” written all over it. The viral clip in question showed an iPad in the Red Sox dugout displaying side-by-side photos of Padres closer Robert Suárez’s mechanics, labeled “FB” and “CH.” The implication was clear: Boston had spotted a pitch tell.
In a vacuum, this is standard operating procedure. Major League Baseball confirmed that teams can upload their own scouting reports to dugout iPads. Padres manager Mike Shildt and pitching coach Ruben Niebla brushed it off. They said San Diego already knew about the mechanical quirk and works on such adjustments constantly. This wasn’t sign-stealing, banging trash cans, or decoding catcher signals in real time.
But for the Red Sox—and specifically for Alex Cora—nothing about optics exists in a vacuum.
The Ghost of 2017 Lingers
The problem isn’t what the iPad showed. It’s who was standing near it. Cora, of course, was bench coach for the Houston Astros during the infamous 2017 sign-stealing scandal. His role in that scheme earned him a suspension. A stain on his reputation that even a World Series win in Boston hasn’t fully erased. Now, in 2025, the Red Sox also have Alex Bregman—a central figure on that same 2017 Astros roster—wearing their uniform.
That’s not a great foundation for shrugging off moments like this.
It doesn’t matter that every club uses technology for scouting. It doesn’t matter that Shildt himself said you could pan into any dugout and see the same thing. Public perception draws on history, and Boston’s current personnel carry more baggage than most. When two of the most recognizable names in your dugout during a “pitch-tipping” viral moment both link to MLB’s most notorious modern cheating scandal, you lose the benefit of the doubt.
The Astros’ saga proved that it’s not just the act—it’s the erosion of trust. Even if Saturday’s iPad moment was just legal scouting, it feeds the narrative that Boston is willing to push lines others might hesitate to touch.
A PR Problem Waiting to Happen
From a baseball standpoint, there’s nothing wrong here. Suárez’s tells were visible to anyone with a sharp eye, and the Red Sox still lost the game after briefly tying it in the ninth. But from a public relations perspective, this is a nightmare in miniature.
Cora has been adamant in the past that Boston plays within MLB’s rules since his suspension. Yet every time the Red Sox find themselves in one of these side-eyed scenarios—be it sign-stealing accusations from opponents earlier this year or this iPad screenshot—it reopens the door for skepticism.
The viral spread of the clip reinforces just how little margin for error Cora’s team has when it comes to appearances. Fans outside Boston, and even some within, don’t care about the nuances of legal vs. illegal pitch recognition. They see an iPad with pitch tells. They see Alex Cora and they remember 2017.
For a franchise still trying to rebuild trust after a series of inconsistent seasons and front-office overhauls, moments like this are distractions at best and credibility hits at worst. In the court of public opinion, intent matters far less than impression. And the impression left here is that Boston is playing in the same gray areas that got Cora in trouble eight years ago.
It’s entirely possible—and likely—that the Red Sox were simply doing their homework. But in today’s game, where every dugout camera angle can be clipped, slowed down, and broadcast to millions, teams with reputations like Boston’s can’t afford even the appearance of impropriety.
In the standings, Saturday’s game was just another loss. In the optics battle, it was another reminder that, fair or not, the Red Sox under Cora will always be viewed through the lens of 2017. And no amount of legal scouting reports on an iPad will change that.
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