The scenario that makes the most sense to me is that the using of technology to steal signs, spy on dugouts, ect was wide spread and the fact the everyone was doing it and not getting punished for it before aug of 2017 when they came down on the Redsox, created a culture of "it's an all out war with trying to get as much info from the other team using subterfuge as you can and whatever you can think of is fair game so long as you don't get caught". When the MLB put in the replay cameras and rooms, all the teams were trying to figure out a way to take advantage of it. Every team thinking they have to outsmart the other teams in the best way to use that new source of info.
From the report, it was Cora's idea to move a monitor with a direct feed from the replay room close to the dugout so they don't have to use cell phones or watches to relay info from the replay booth like a lot of other teams were doing. Once that happened, I can see, with that mindset, players start thinking "man with this new information we have at our fingertips, how can we best use it? How can we get the info to the batter even if there is no one on base without having to use technology that can get us busted? What if we use some kind of noise that we could just blow off as normal stadium noise?"...... and it just evolves from there, and at no point does Cora and the players stop to think "are we taking this too far?" They are all in the mindset of the other teams are trying to think of ways to get advantages with that camera feed so we need to have the best system. AJ sees it happening but it pisses him off because he just doesn't think that should be part of baseball, but he also thinks other teams are doing everything they can to get an edge with the replay camera feeds so he makes it known he doesn't like it, but doesn't do anything to make it stop. It just rolls from there, they try out things and figure out the trashcan thing and the rest is history. And now looking back, the players can see how it probably got out of hand and they probably took it further than other teams even thought it was probably because they didn't think of it.
7nine
