As the old saying goes, “The Proof is in the pudding”, and In this case, MLB have the proof all over it. On Friday, a Judge from NY names Richard Randkoff ordered MLB to unseal a letter that may contain extra “Cheating Information” that may Include the Yankees from the sign- stealing investigation Major League Baseball conducted this offseason of the 2017 Astros and 2018 Red Sox.
It is widely-known that the Astros and Red Sox were penalized for their wrongdoings in those world-championship years, but this story starts in April when a judge dismissed the lawsuit of DraftKings and the Yankees against MLB for being light with the punishments of Houston and Boston. However, the plaintiffs pressed the judge to reconsider stating that MLB may be hiding information from the court in this case. In response, the judge ordered MLB to file any extra information they may hav from their investigations.
The only problem is though, the Yankees objected to unsealing the letter saying it would cause “significant reputational injury”. This statement got plenty of fans and players around baseball suspicious, now putting the Yankees in the same boat as Houston and Boston, despite not winning a championship in either of those seasons like their counterparts did.
But on Saturday, multiple reports shut those accusations down, as it ultimately was revealed, the information in the letter does have the Yankees stealing signs, but only from 2009-2016, when the rules allowed it prior to 2017. The punishments the Astros and Red Sox received were due to the fact they went against the MLB rules, after they clarified using illegal electronic equipment to steal sighn is prohibited in 2017. The reason for Boston having a lighter punishment than Houston, (With them only losing a pick and a replay operator, compared to Houston losing 4 picks, their GM and manager) was because they stopped using it in the postseason, and it only happened when their was a man on second base (Which only happened 19.7% of time on league average that season), while Houston did it for every single hitter.
What isn’t widely-known is that the Yankees stole signs from 2009-2016, and even though the rules allowed you to do it at the time, it would still make some people involved with the Yankees uneasy.
In September of 2017, the Yankees were fined an undisclosed amount by baseball for illegal use of a bullpen phone when arguing a “strike” call in a September regular season affair, which is illegal use of electronic equipment, but isn’t nearly significant enough to require an investigation. This past offseason, the Red Sox claimed to have found information, regarding the Yankees maybe cheating on 2017, but MLB found no violations after a
quick investigation. It is unclear to us fans, what those “violations” were, but in the end, MLB came out with a statement in January, declaring the Yankees “clean” and cheating-free. As for the bullpen phone thing, that was ultimately performed a few days before the official clarification of the sign-stealing rules by MLB.
So why were the Yankees punished for it? Well that’s something that’s not ideal and it was tampering with unauthorized electronic equipment in terms of replay.
Nothing has really changed since then, so what this order by Judge Randakoff is essentially doing is putting any lingering doubts to rest about the Yankees cheating in 2017. The official unveiling of the letter to judge is reportedly set for Friday.
Pic via @NYpostsports on Twitter.
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