http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/13089501/report-fbi-investigating-st-louis-cardinals-hacking-houston-astros-database

The St. Louis Cardinals are being investigated by the FBI for allegedly hacking into networks and trying to steal information about the Houston Astros, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Major League Baseball, the Cardinals and Astros all issued statements Tuesday saying they have cooperated fully with the investigation, which started last year after some information was posted anonymously online.

According to ESPN legal analyst Lester Munson, the federal investigation is close to a conclusion.

The Times reported Tuesday that the FBI and Justice Department officials have evidence that Cardinals officials -- who were not identified -- allegedly tapped into the Astros' database and had access to statistics, scouting reports and internal discussions about players, trades and other proprietary information.

"Major League Baseball has been aware of and has fully cooperated with the federal investigation into the illegal breach of the Astros' baseball operations database," the MLB statement said. "Once the investigative process has been completed by federal law enforcement officials, we will evaluate the next steps and will make decisions promptly."

The Astros and Cardinals added that they would not comment further, as it's an ongoing federal investigation.

"Something is going on," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny told reporters before Tuesday's game. "We don't know how to react at all until we have more information, so we don't."

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred indicated later Tuesday that MLB will not reach judgment until the investigation progresses further.

"I think until we know, this is different from when we might investigate, for example, a drug case where we're one of the investigators," Manfred said during a news conference at Fenway Park. "I have access to all the facts real time in a situation like that. That's just not the case here, and because I don't know exactly what the facts are and I don't think the person who wrote the Times story knows exactly what the facts are, that it really doesn't make sense for me to speculate as to how serious a problem I have.

"Soon enough, I think that we will have full information as to what went on. I think you can rest assured that we will act appropriately at that point in time. I think people should also not lose sight of the fact that in addition to what happened, there's the question of who did it, who knew about it, who was the organization responsible, the individual responsible -- there's a whole set of issues that are going to be needed to be sorted through."

Both the Cardinals and Major League Baseball have been served with subpoenas, the Times reported, but no actions have been taken against the officials under investigation.

Manfred acknowledged on several occasions that MLB has not experienced a situation like this one, saying that it is "a federal investigation, not a baseball investigation."

"All I'll say about our forensics people is they assist us in a variety of investigations that almost without exception, I think those investigations have related to violations of the [collective bargaining agreement]," he said. "We've not had anything of this type."