Okay, sure. But teams will find that it's worth it because only the GM and manager got the boot. Players, who knowingly and willingly partook in the offense, got off scot-free. Other front office and coaching staff got off scot-free as well. Jim Crane got a WS title and whatever additional revenue that entailed in the next two seasons. He didn't even have to fire Luhnow and Hinch because the league thought a suspension was sufficient. So in the end, all he lost was two fall guys, $5 million, and some draft picks. So yes, I do think that teams will see what happened here and think, hey it's not that bad.
You're mistaking "teams" as just the GM, manager, and players. MLB teams are massive organizations, and if they see that only a few people in baseball operations get the boot, why shouldn't they try to cheat to win?
But to your point, I don't know Hinch at all. What I do know is that he was willing enough to cheat his way to a WS ring. He then got a contract extension with a raise in the middle of 2018. Maybe the only thing he regrets is that they got caught way too soon for him to reap all the benefits. Either way, you and I are probably making wild assumptions about how he feels right now.
1. "Only the GM and manager got the boot." "Only the GM and manager?" Those are the two highest profile positions in the organization outside of players and the ownership. And there was no evidence here that the GM knew about what was happening. And Hinch didn't participate in it, and even destroyed the equipment on two occasions. They were still suspended for a year and fired. Cora is almost certainly going to be punished even harsher. So organizationally, who is incentivized to cheat, or to allow cheating, here?
2. Players: true, but MLB didn't want the headache of handing out all of those suspensions and dealing with appeals. But ultimately, they know that the players couldn't get away with this without coordination and complacency from the coaching staff, which is where the punishment happened.
3. Other front office: why would anyone else in the front office be punished? How is their boss being fired not a pretty strong deterrent?
4. Coaching staff: Cora is about to get punished, probably harsher than anyone.
5. Jim Crane: he didn't know about it, and I believe it, because I can't imagine an owner being involved in something like this. So I don't know how much of a message needs to be sent to him, but these punishments, and the fact that he is now going to have to hire a new GM and a new manager, is not nothing.
6. I didn't say teams are only those positions. Please don't misquote me. But most of the people in the "massive organizations" aren't really in a position to be responsible for this kind of thing, other than the players. So why would this incentivize anyone, other than maybe the players (who I don't think are actually emboldened by this), to cheat?
7. Hinch: it's weird that you can speculate on how faceless individuals on other teams will react to this, but then play the "I don't know him" card on Hinch. Of course Hinch only regrets that his team got punished and he got caught. But that doesn't mean he is happy with this "trade." I doubt he is. And I'm ok speculating on it.