Mariners’ AL West rivals deliver comedy gold with bizarre ‘baseball spy’ story

The Mariners are currently competing with the Rangers at the top of the AL West. The Angels are at the bottom. And somewhere in between those two facts, LA managed to turn a routine scouting assignment into an episode of baseball’s least competent espionage thriller.

According to The Athletic, Angels pro scout Justin “Boomer” Prinstein was spotted using his phone to film members of the Rockies’ coaching staff at Coors Field. Colorado reported him to Major League Baseball, the league contacted the Angels and then-general manager Perry Minasian fired Prinstein immediately.

Minasian also apologized to the Rockies. That sequence should be enough, but then we get to the nickname.

Prinstein calls himself “The Baseball Spy.” He used the name for his social-media handle and a podcast. Subtlety apparently wasn’t part of the operation.

There are easier ways to blend into the crowd than publicly branding yourself as a baseball spy before getting caught filming the opposition. He might as well have worn an Angels cap with “DEFINITELY NOT RECORDING YOUR SIGNS” stitched across the front.

Los Angeles Picked an Awful Time to Play Secret Agent

The exact purpose of the filming is unclear. Scouts are generally allowed to record certain parts of games, but MLB prohibits using technology to steal or decode signs. The reported facts don’t support calling this an organization-wide Angels scheme. Both clubs apparently believe Prinstein was acting independently, and the Angels aren’t expected to receive additional punishment.

Also, why film the Rockies? They aren’t necessarily a ruthless machine guarding baseball’s deepest strategies. 

Curious of what there could be to gain by having a man called “The Baseball Spy” filming one of the few teams capable of looking up at them in the standings, and Colorado still took two of three when the clubs met in LA.

If we copy the answers and still fail the test, perhaps the answer key wasn’t the problem.

That brings us to the Mariners, who have earned the right to appreciate this story. They recently welcomed the Angels to T-Mobile Park and swept all three games. So, the Angels also failed to crack that code.

At the same time, it’s not like the Mariners are cruising. They entered July 22 at .500, and have produced plenty of their own frustration. 

For years, the Angels carried a different kind of threat. This was a team that had Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani on it. Even when they weren’t contending, the roster contained enough star power to make Mariners games uncomfortable.

Now Ohtani is gone, Trout can’t stay healthy, the Angels are buried at the bottom of the division and their most memorable contribution to the season might be firing a scout whose self-appointed spy nickname became the punchline of his own dismissal.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/mariners/onsi as Mariners’ AL West Rivals Deliver Comedy Gold With Bizarre ‘Baseball Spy’ Story.