MLB Letter Unsealed: Yankees Used Technology in 2015 & ’16 To Help Baserunners
Major League Baseball finally released the hidden letter that details the New York Yankees did engage in a form of sign stealing in 2015 and 2016, a year before the Houston Astros would engage in more heinous tactics during their purist of a World Series title.
The letter which was granted release last month by the U.S. Second Court of Appeals, which denied a motion by the Yankees to keep the letter sealed from public access.
Using technology to steal signs was rampant in baseball. The Yankees, Red Sox and Astros — and others whose indiscretions have not been proven publicly — did it. It’s simply facile to treat them as the same. It’s factual to say that there are different levels of cheating. (9/9)
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 26, 2022
"We knew that already" is not a good defense.
— Michael Schwab (@michaelschwab13) April 26, 2022
The letter confirms the Yankees stole signs electronically using a video feed and relayed the information in real-time with a phone.
Before it was speculation. Cheating is cheating. Now we know where Beltran got his system.
According to ESPN: “The details contained in Manfred’s letter to the Yankees note violations that players and staffers say became commonplace in the sport after instant replay monitors were installed within proximity of the dugouts in 2014.
In the letter, Manfred informed the Yankees that MLB’s investigation found that the team’s players watched the monitors in 2015 and 2016 to discern pitch-sequence information that was then relayed to baserunners in the hope that they could communicate this to the batter.”
Former Pitching Coach Larry Rothschild was called to the replay room to identify pitches, which is illegal.
The letter does not convey any real time sign stealing took place from the dugout to hitters during their live at bats — a scheme the Astros perfected during their 2017 World Series run.
The Yankees were fined $100,000 for the incident; that money was redirected to Hurricane Irma relief at the time.
The revelation puts to the lie many Yankees fans have been running with that the baseball team was never guilty of tactics similar to those of the Astros in 2017, and Boston Red Sox in 2018.
