Court Denies Yankees’ Appeal to Keep Sign-Stealing Letter Sealed

The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Yankees’ appeal to keep a letter sealed from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to general manager Brian Cashman that allegedly documents the team’s sign-stealing scheme.

Yankees president Randy Levine made the appeal on April 1 in hopes that the court would reverse its initial ruling of a decision to have the letter unsealed on March 21. With Thursday’s rejection, the letter must be made public within the next two weeks. 

“We’re disappointed in the Court of Appeals decision, but we respect it,” Levine told the New York Post. “However, we think it will lead to very bad results down the road.”

The Yankees’ case was based on the idea that unsealing the letter would harm the team’s reputation from a previous lawsuit in which it was not a part of. Daily fantasy sports players filed a $5 million lawsuit in March against MLB and the Red Sox alleging that Manfred withheld information from the public about MLB’s 2017 investigation involving Apple Watches being used to steal signs. The commissioner sent a letter to the Yankees that stated additional information about the league’s findings. 

The letter, according to the Post, states that the Yankees improperly used a dugout phone in a season before 2017, and some players positioned themselves in the team’s replay room seeking to steal the opponents’ signs and relay that information to runners on second base.

MLB previously issued a statement about the Yankees’ conduct regarding this issue saying that it “clarified the rules going forward to expressly prohibit such conduct.”

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