Cora believes 'there's no paranoia' about sign stealing anymore

As Major League Baseball tries to combat its newest scandal involving pitchers using foreign substances, it appears the sign-stealing issues that rocked the sport in recent years have faded away.

"Now, there's no paranoia," Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, according to the Boston Globe's Alex Speier.

Cora was suspended for the 2020 season due to his role in the Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal while serving as the team's bench coach. Following the investigation, Cora and the Red Sox mutually agreed to part ways before the club eventually rehired him 10 months later.

While sign-stealing penalties hit the Astros the hardest, several other teams were accused of having their own types of schemes, which Cora said caused rampant issues around the league.

"From 2017, when I was (in Houston), through 2019, there was a lot of paranoia," Cora said.

"It was another layer that you had to be prepared for. It didn't matter who you were playing, you had to be prepared. It affected catchers. It affected pitchers. I think it affected players more than anything else. Some great catchers struggled. It was another layer you had to worry about."

In May, retired catcher Erik Kratz revealed the Milwaukee Brewers "caught" the Colorado Rockies "doing something almost similar" to what the Astros did during the 2018 playoffs.

MLB implemented new rules and penalties heading into the 2020 campaign to help discourage clubs from using video to illegally acquire another team's signs. The league has not taken any disciplinary action since.