TAMPA — The Yankees aren’t going down without a fight in their effort to keep a letter from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to general manager Brian Cashman that allegedly provides details into a sign-stealing scheme.
The latest salvo came Friday, when the Yankees and team president Randy Levine filed a motion for the Second Circuit Appeals Court to reverse its March 21 ruling to have the letter unsealed due to their contention it would harm the organization’s reputation as part of a since-dismissed lawsuit in which it was not involved.
In the Yankees’ filing — which the team released to the press in full — they argued the organization is “not a party to this case” and MLB mistakenly produced the letter in court.
The case — which was tossed last month — was a $5 million lawsuit by fantasy baseball players that used DraftKings against MLB, the Astros and Red Sox regarding the illegal sign-stealing scandals that occurred in 2017 and 2018.
The letter is said to deal with a pair of sign-stealing-related transgressions committed by the Yankees, including improperly using a dugout phone in a season before 2017, as well as referencing the fact some Yankees players stationed themselves in the team’s replay room in an attempt to steal opponents’ signs, then relayed that information to runners on second base so they could try to tell the hitter what was coming.
MLB previously released information about the use of the dugout phone and absolved the Yankees of any penalty for these actions, saying in a statement “we clarified the rules going forward to expressly prohibit such conduct.”
In Friday’s appeal, the Yankees noted the letter stemmed from an MLB investigation of the team and “such investigation was not subject to judicial review in this lawsuit.”
The Yankees also called the lawsuit “meritless” and also claim they are being singled out because of the franchise’s high profile.
“One must wonder if both the district court and this Court’s decisions would be different if the subject was a less famous party than the New York Yankees. Would it be less likely that such a document would be released? We think maybe so.”