I assume a critical part of Manfred’s investigation involved determining how widespread illegal sign-stealing was. The punishments suggest he concluded that what the Astros did since the warning in late 2017 was markedly different from what other teams were doing during that time frame.So IF the dam bursts and it turns out a dozen or more teams were guilty of the same transgressions (they just didn't happen to win the WS via their crime) MLB will have to:
A: rescind punishments already given out, or
B: repeat said punishments and fire a dozen more managers, or
C: somehow explain why the same crime deserves different punishments by the same hand.
This is becoming a full-fledged clusterfuck.
Because of Cora‘s presence and the Apple Watch incident, Manfred can justify giving a milder punishment to the Red Sox, even if other teams may have been doing the same thing.