Report: MLB Must Unseal Letter Related to Yankees Sign-Stealing Investigation

Nearly two years after a judge ruled that MLB’s letter containing detailed information regarding the Yankees’ electronic sign-stealing scheme must be made public, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reportedly denied the team’s and MLB’s requests to keep the letter private, according to Evan Drellich of The Athletic.

A lawsuit filed by daily fantasy sports players against MLB and the Red Sox alleged that commissioner Rob Manfred withheld information from the public about what the league’s 2017 investigation into the use of Apple Watches to steal signs had revealed. Manfred allegedly sent a letter to the Yankees that provided further information on the league’s findings.

“The Yankees argue that the harm from the unsealing of the Yankees Letter will arise because its content ‘would be distorted to falsely and unfairly generate the confusing scenario that the Yankees had somehow violated MLB’s sign-stealing rules, when in fact the Yankees did not,’” the court wrote. “That argument, however, carries little weight. Disclosure of the document will allow the public to independently assess MLB’s conclusion regarding the internal investigation (as articulated to the Yankees), and the Yankees are fully capable of disseminating their own views regarding the actual content of the Yankees Letter. In short, any purported distortions regarding the content of the Yankees Letter can be remedied by the widespread availability of the actual content of this judicial document to the public, and the corresponding ability of MLB and the Yankees to publicly comment on it.”

Both the Red Sox and Yankees were fined by the league in 2017 for using technology to steal opponents’ signs. The Astros were later punished by the league for sign-stealing in ’18, along with the Red Sox again.

“This letter related to the results of an internal investigation, which plaintiffs allege contradicted a subsequent MLB press release on the same subject,” chief judge Debra Ann Livingston wrote. “In light of plaintiffs’ attempted use of the letter in their proposed Second Amended Complaint and the district court’s discussion of the letter in explaining its decision to deny plaintiffs’ request for leave to amend in their reconsideration motion, and because MLB disclosed a substantial portion of the substance of the letter in its press release about the investigation, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in unsealing the letter, subject to redacting the names of certain individuals.”