Yankees Letter on 2017 Sign-Stealing Findings to Be Released After Court Ruling

A 2nd Circuit court denied an appeal by the New York Yankees that sought to bar the release of a 2017 letter regarding sign-stealing sent by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.

Evan Drellich of The Athletic reported the Yankees do not plan on appealing to the Supreme Court, meaning the letter could become public within seven days.

"We’re disappointed by the Court of Appeals' decision, but we respect it," Yankees president Randy Levine said in a statement. "However, I believe that as described in my petition, this will lead to a lot of bad results down the road." 

To this point, it's been unclear what exactly the letter details. However, it's been abundantly clear that the Yankees do not want its contents made public.

The franchise has been fighting in the courts to suppress the letter through the courts since an initial appeal in 2020.

Major League Baseball fined the Yankees in 2017 after an investigation into sign stealing, having found that the team misused dugout phones. The Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros have also been punished to varying degrees by MLB for using technology to steal signs in the past. 

Joon Lee of ESPN reported the Red Sox received a larger fine than the Yankees for their sign-stealing scheme involving Apple watches in 2017. The Red Sox also received penalties for using technology to steal signs in 2018. The Astros' cheating scandal rocked all of baseball and severely damaged the reputation of several players and management figures in the organization.

It's possible that publicizing the accusations made against the Yankees will result in some serious reputation damage as well.