Leaked Yankees sign-stealing letter reveals minor transgressions we already knew
The letter from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred regarding a sign-stealing investigation into the Yankees, which the club fought to keep sealed turned out to be more fizzle than fireworks.
The only new information from the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Post on Tuesday, is that the Yankees are $100,000 poorer for their infractions. Otherwise, the letter from Manfred to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman described what The Post’s Ken Davidoff and Joel Sherman previously reported in 2020 — that the Yankees used their video replay room to decode signs and then relayed that information to the dugout.
When the Yankees were in certain road stadiums, where the video room was not close to the dugout, they also used the phone in the replay room “to provide real-time information” on their opponent’s signs to coaches on the bench, the letter said.
The transgressions occurred during 2015 and the first half of the 2016 season, according to the letter, which was dated Sept. 14, 2017. A day later, Manfred established that future sign-stealing schemes would be met with harsher punishment, which was the case for the Astros’ infamous sign-stealing scheme (spanning from 2017-18) that included the use of technology and banging trash cans.
“The contents and details of the letter from Commissioner Manfred to Brian Cashman have widely been reported upon since 2017,” the Yankees said in a statement. “As the facts of the letter again show, the Yankees were not penalized for sign stealing but were penalized for improper use of the telephone in the replay room (which was only to be used for discussions regarding replay review challenges). At that point in time, sign stealing was utilized as a competitive tool by numerous teams throughout Major League Baseball and only became illegal after the Commissioner’s specific delineation of the rules on September 15, 2017.”
MLB confirmed in a separate statement that the $100,000 fine — put toward Hurricane Irma relief, according to the letter — was strictly for “improper use of the dugout phone because the Replay Review Regulations prohibited the use of the replay phone to transmit any information other than whether to challenge a play.”
“The Yankees did not violate MLB’s rules at the time governing sign stealing,” MLB said in its statement. “At that time, use of the replay room to decode signs was not expressly prohibited by MLB rules as long as the information was not communicated electronically to the dugout.”
Former Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira described the team’s method to The Post in 2020. Teixeira said a few Yankees players and coaches used replay monitors to decipher a sequence or indicator and would then share it with teammates. If a runner reached second base, he would see if the opposing catcher was using the same signs. If he was, the runner could alert the hitter with his own sign, according to Teixeira.
The investigation into the Yankees, which came as a result of MLB’s investigation into the Red Sox for using an Apple Watch to relay stolen signs, also cleared them of allegations that the club used YES Network cameras pointed at Red Sox coaches and players to gain an illegal advantage.
Before Tuesday, there had been plenty of speculation over the contents of MLB’s letter to the Yankees. It entered the public light in 2020, when a lawsuit filed by DraftKings players against MLB, the Astros and Red Sox for allegedly defrauding them with their respective sign-stealing programs, eventually dragged the Yankees into it.
The Yankees fought for nearly two years to keep the letter sealed. But last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected a motion filed by the Yankees for the court to reverse its ruling to have the letter unsealed.
“The Yankees vigorously fought the production of this letter, not only for the legal principle involved, but to prevent the incorrect equating of events that occurred before the establishment of the Commissioner’s sign-stealing rules with those that took place after,” the Yankees said in the statement Tuesday. “What should be made vibrantly clear is this: the fine noted in Major League Baseball’s letter was imposed before MLB’s new regulations and standards were issued.
“Since Major League Baseball clarified its regulations regarding the use of video room equipment on September 15, 2017, the Yankees have had no infractions or violations.”
