For more than two years, the New York Yankees fought the release of the so-called “Yankee Letter,” in which Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred detailed the results of a 2017 investigation into mutual sign stealing allegations between the Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
On Tuesday morning, SNY exclusively obtained the letter, which has not yet been unsealed.
Here are some takeaways:
The Astros and Red Sox were later punished for real time, electronic sign stealing after 9/15/17. Boston relayed sign sequences to runners on second base during the 2018 season, when they won the World Series. Houston, according to sources with direct knowledge, participated in real-time electronic sign stealing with no runners on base during the 2017 World Series, which they won.
The Red Sox were never accused of stealing signs with no runners on base.
The Yankee Letter, addressed to senior vice president and general manager Brian Cashman, is dated Sept. 14, 2017. It begins:
Dear Brian:
On August 23, 2017, the New York Yankees filed a formal complaint and requested that the Office of the Commissioner "conduct a full and complete investigation concerning the illegal use of electronic equipment, in game, by the Boston Red Sox in order to steal signs and gain an illegal advantage in the game." As a result of the Yankees complaint, I directed the Department of Investigations to interview a number of employees of the Red Sox and the Yankees in connection with this matter. Based on the information we received, I have concluded that the Red Sox violated On-Field Regulation 1-2.A by using electronic equipment for the purpose of stealing signs or conveying information designed to give a Club an advantage." I will address this violation of the On-Field Regulations directly with the Red Sox.
During our investigation into the Red Sox's misconduct, [Redacted] informed the Department of Investigations that the Yankees used a similar scheme to that of the Red Sox to decode opposing Clubs' signs and relay them to the batter when a runner was on second base. [Redacted] -- who initially noticed that the Red Sox were using a smartwatch to pass information to their players -- admitted to the Department of Investigations that during the 2015 season and the first half of the 2016 season, [Redacted], provided information about opposing Club's signs to players and members of the coaching staff in the replay room at Yankee Stadium, who then physically relayed the information to the Yankees' dugout. [Redacted] also admitted that during that same time period, in certain stadiums on the road where the video room was not proximate to the dugout, used the phone line in the replay room to orally provide real-time information about opposing Club's signs to Yankee coaches on the bench.
[....]
The Yankees' use of the dugout phone to relay information about an opposing Club's signs during the 2015 season, and part of the 2016 season, constitutes a material violation of the Replay Review Regulations. By using the phone in the video review room to instantaneously transmit information regarding signs to the dugout in violation of the Regulations, the Yankees were able to provide real-time information to their players regarding an opposing Club's sign sequence - the same objective of the Red Sox's scheme that was the subject of the Yankees' complaint.
Based on the foregoing, the Yankees are hereby fined $100,000. Please send a check in that amount, made payable to Major League Baseball Charities, to my attention. The money will be used for Hurricane Irma relief.
During the years between 2014 and 2017, expanded video replay provided teams with an opportunity to watch and decode a catcher’s sign sequences in real time. For more than a century, savvy players had done this while standing on second base, which was not against the rules of the sport.
The Yankees and Red Sox were among the many clubs who began to use their video replay room for that purpose.
On Aug. 17, 2017, Yankees replay coordinator Brett Weber spotted a Red Sox trainer using an Apple Watch in the dugout to receive signs and relay them to the baserunner. The team later asked MLB to investigate.
As MLB was about to conclude that investigation, the New York Times reported on the Apple Watch issue. Believing that the Yankees were responsible for the media leak, the Red Sox organization asked MLB to investigate the Yanks for sign stealing.
The league later presented its findings to the clubs in writing, as Manfred typically does after any investigation. In addition to the “Yankee Letter,” there is a “Red Sox Letter,” and many more letters as teams asked MLB to investigate one another regarding sign stealing.
The Yankee Letter has become the subject of considerable speculation only because of a lawsuit filed by DraftKings contestants, alleging damages from MLB sign stealing.
In April 2020, U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff dismissed the lawsuit, but ordered Manfred’s letter to the Yankees unsealed. The team fought its release, claiming that it would result in “significant reputational injury” -- a legal argument that some of the team’s baseball operations employees believed overstated their actual deeds.
Last Thursday, the Yankees lost their final appeal to keep the letter from public view, in which team president Randy Levine wrote that the revelation of a letter marked “highly confidential” in a dismissed lawsuit to which the Yankees were not a party would discourage future participation in supposedly confidential investigations.
The letter is expected to be unsealed later this week.
Anyone hoping that it would implicate the Yankees or Red Sox in a scandal of Astros-level proportion will be disappointed by its contents. Houston remains the only team proven to have stolen signs electronically in real time and passed them directly to the batter -- most commonly by the banging of a trash can behind the dugout. The Astros’ sign stealing by various methods extended through the 2019 season.
One area in which the Yankee Letter diverges from previous reporting is its explicit stating that the Yankees used the dugout phone to relay sign sequences. Yankee sources maintain that the violation consisted of then-pitching coach Larry Rothschild calling the replay room to ask about balls and strikes.
Here is what Manfred said about the Yankees’ violation in his public statement on Sept. 15, 2017:
"In the course of our investigation, however, we learned that during an earlier championship season (prior to 2017) the Yankees had violated a rule governing the use of the dugout phone. No Club complained about the conduct in question at the time and, without prompting from another Club or my Office, the Yankees halted the conduct in question. Moreover, the substance of the communications that took place on the dugout phone was not a violation of any Rule or Regulation in and of itself. Rather, the violation occurred because the dugout phone technically cannot be used for such a communication.”
The Yankees in 2017 disputed the allegation in the letter about relaying sign sequences via the dugout phone, and continue to do so. The team regards Manfred’s public statement as more accurate than his earlier letter to Cashman.
It is perhaps a subtle difference, because previous reporting held that the Yankees relayed signs verbally from the replay room. But the letter does claim that they did so by phone and the Yankees dispute it. As far as MLB is concerned, any conversation on that phone about a topic other than whether to challenge a call is a violation -- whether about sign stealing, balls and strikes, or a dinner order.
Regardless, the phone violations happened before the 2017 season.
MLB declined comment.
On Sept. 15, 2017, Manfred announced that he was fining the Red Sox for their Apple Watch violation, and fining the Yankees “a lesser amount” for their violations.
He said: “All 30 Clubs have been notified that future violations of this type will be subject to more serious sanctions, including the possible loss of draft picks.”
Any time a new technology appears in the game, MLB has to closely watch how it is used, and then clarify to clubs what is and is not acceptable. The latest example occurred this week, when the league’s senior vice president of on-field operations Michael Hill issued a memo to teams reminding teams not to use their replay room to zoom in on the new PitchCom devices for audio signs, according to sources.
No team that participated in electronic sign stealing before 9/15/17 was in violation of the commissioner’s newly stated emphasis on the issue. MLB reiterated that emphasis in a March 27, 2018 memo to clubs from then-chief baseball officer Joe Torre.
In the Yankee Letter, Manfred also cleared the Yanks of an allegation levied by the Red Sox -- that the team used cameras from its YES Network to steal signs.
Manfred writes:
As you know, on September 5, 2017, the Red Sox submitted a separate formal complaint and request that my office investigate the Yankees, alleging that the Yankees have employed "techniques of sign stealing and relaying, as well as other questionable methods of gathering information on opposing teams' strategies," which have included "using YES Network cameras pointed at [the Red Sox's] coaching staff and player giving signs in the dugout, in order to gain an illegal advantage in the game.." My office has thoroughly investigated the Red Sox's claims in this regard and has concluded they are without merit.. The Red Sox also submitted a video clip from a YES Network broadcast of a June 13, 2017 game between the Yankees and the Angels in Anaheim that appears to show a Yankees bullpen coach watching the Angels' network broadcast of the game on an unauthorized iPad in the Yankees' bullpen. The broadcast is on a one-pitch delay, and there is no evidence the Yankees were using the iPad as part of a sign stealing scheme. Regardless, use of this iPad violated On-Field Regulation 1-2.A.
In the months after The Athletic reported on the Astros 2017 trash can scheme, in late 2019, the team fired general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch. Boston manager Alex Cora and Mets manager Carlos Beltran -- the Astros’ bench coach and designated hitter in 2017, respectively -- also lost their jobs.
Neither Cashman nor then-Yankees manager Joe Girardi -- now with the Phillies -- is expected to face similar outrage with the revelation of Manfred’s letter. MLB considers the Yankees’ actions in 2015 and 2016 in line with what was common in the league during those years.
