The letter that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred sent to New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman in 2017 regarding a sign-stealing investigation was leaked on Tuesday and has the MLB world talking.
SNY obtained the letter, which details that Yankees players used their video replay room to try and identify sign sequences in an attempt to steal the opposing team’s signs. The Yankees were also found to be improperly using a dugout phone to relay information about the opposing team’s signs, which they were fined $100,000 for doing.
This is different from what the Houston Astros did in their infamous World Series run in 2017, where they were using the center field camera as well as trash cans to illegally steal what pitch was coming from the opposing pitcher.
While the Yankees did get condemned with a fine from Manfred and the MLB, this event occurred before Manfred said that future sign-stealing actions would be met with harsher punishments.
Many around the MLB world do feel that the Yankees should have been met with harsher punishments than what was given out.
Others feel that the Astros’ situation was far worse and that it should not be treated in the same category of cheating.
https://twitter.com/WillPresti/status/1519066309748826112
It certainly makes you wonder why exactly the Yankees were so adamant that this letter didn’t get out if they knew that they did very little wrong. For everyone involved, it comes off as a very shady look for this to come out so many years after the initial investigation.
While the Astros seemingly did far more in their role of cheating, the Yankees certainly don’t come out of this looking clean for what they did.
[SNY, New York Post]