The content of the famous letter that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred sent to New York Yankees‘ general manager Brian Cashman regarding sign-stealing has now been revealed.
SNY reporter Andy Martino published some details about the letter.
It says that the Yankees, in 2015 and 2016, used the video replay room to decode signs and pass them to a runner at second base.
This runner would then relay these signs to the hitter, using signs, of course.
It was wrong, and the Yankees know it: otherwise, they wouldn’t have tried to protect the content of the letter by going to several legal instances.
However, it’s also clear that it wasn’t on the level of what the Houston Astros did in 2017.
That was a whole scheme with real-time stealing of catcher signs, using the center field camera.
Then, the players in the dugout would relay these signs to the hitter in real time.
Passan Downplayed The Issue
ESPN reporter Jeff Passan weighed in on the issue.
“The upshot: The Yankees (and Red Sox) were illegally using the replay room to steal signs, but neither scheme was anything close to what the Astros were doing with trash cans. Other teams were very likely doing similar things to New York and Boston. That element spanned the game,” he tweeted.
The upshot: The Yankees (and Red Sox) were illegally using the replay room to steal signs, but neither scheme was anything close to what the Astros were doing with trash cans. Other teams were very likely doing similar things to New York and Boston. That element spanned the game.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 26, 2022
In a previously sent tweet, Passan also downplayed the importance of the letter.
“The infamous Yankees Letter … is pretty much a nothing-burger. Says the Yankees used their replay room to decode catchers’ signs and relay them to runners on second — which multiple teams were doing. Does not find they were illicitly using CF camera. @martinonyc had it first,” he said.
Twitter is full of responses about the topic.
At long last, the content of the letter was revealed, and it became the piece of news of the day.
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