Blue Jays' Jay Jackson Confirms He Was Tipping Pitches to Aaron Judge, Yankees

Aaron Judge appearing to look toward the New York Yankees' dugout before launching a home run during Monday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays generated plenty of headlines, but it doesn't appear anything nefarious was happening.

Rather, Blue Jays pitcher Jay Jackson confirmed to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic that he was tipping his pitches during the game.

Rosenthal cited multiple sources with Toronto who said Yankees first base coach Travis Chapman could see Jackson's grip, which indicated the pitch he was about to throw. It seems this wasn't a case of illegal sign-stealing, but an instance of a pitcher not being careful enough on the mound.

Michael Dixon of Awful Announcing noted Blue Jays broadcasters Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez raised concern about what Judge was looking at during the eighth-inning plate appearance.

"Once again, he's looking at something, then the next move is that powerful swing, and he blasts one to center field," Martinez said. "I've not seen that before with him. I've not ever seen that."

Judge was asked about the broadcasters and said, "I'm not happy about it, but people can say what they want," per Yankees reporter Bryan Hoch. "I've still got a game to play. I've got things to do."

Hoch reported New York does not expect Major League Baseball to investigate the incident.

Concerns about sign-stealing are nothing new in baseball, especially after the scandal involving the Houston Astros that saw the league fine the team $5 million, take away its first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021, and suspend then-general manager Jeff Luhnow and then-manager AJ Hinch for one year.

Luhnow and Hinch were subsequently fired.

The Yankees were not involved in a scandal of that magnitude, but Buster Olney of ESPN reported in April 2022 that the league fined them $100,000 when an investigation found "players watched the monitors in 2015 and 2016 to discern pitch-sequence information that was then relayed to baserunners in the hope that they could communicate this to the batter."

There won't be such fallout in this case, particularly after Jackson admitted he was tipping pitches.

The right-hander was optioned to Triple-A Buffalo on Tuesday after the game and has a 3.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and two strikeouts in three major league innings this season.

Judge launched two home runs during Monday's 7-4 victory.