Yankee Letter Reveals Team Used Video To Decode Signals In '15-'16

HOUSTON — Houston Astros fans can gloat a little and know their team isn't alone after the infamous Yankee letter, obtained by SNY, revealed the New York Yankees used their video replay room to decode signals and relay them to the dugout during the 2015 and 2016 seasons and were fined $100,000.

The Yankees had been fighting to keep the letter sealed since April 2020, when it was ordered unsealed when a lawsuit from daily fantasy baseball players claimed sign stealing affected MLB games and their own wager was dismissed. The Yankees recently lost their last appeal to keep the letter under wraps, but SNY obtained the letter Tuesday before it could be unsealed.

The letter, dated Sept. 14, 2017, and addressed to Yankees GM Brian Cashman from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, was a response to a Yankees complaint on Aug. 23, 2017, that the Boston Red Sox were using electronic equipment to steal signs during a game.

During the investigation, league officials learned the Yankees had been using their video replay room to decode opponents' signals and physically relay them to the dugout. Players who reach second base could then read and relay the catcher's signals to the batter. At away venues where the replay room was not adjacent to the dugout, the team would use the phone to relay the information, the letter said.

The letter did clear the Yankees of wrongdoing regarding accusations from the Red Sox that the team was using YES Network cameras to steal signs.

The Yankees' $100,000 fine, an amount which was previously undisclosed, went toward Hurricane Irma relief, according to the letter.

Both teams earned undisclosed fines out of the initial investigation. The Red Sox were fined an undisclosed amount for using an Apple Watch to relay opposing teams' signals to the dugout. The Yankees' then-unknown fine was for improper use of a dugout phone, though league officials at the time said it was unrelated to sign stealing.

Sign stealing has long been part of baseball and is not itself against the rules, though it has often been frowned on. But the introduction of video replay to MLB games allowed teams to secretly use the system to steal signs in real-time from the 2014 season through 2017, until the league began cracking down on the practice.

At the conclusion of the Yankees-Red Sox investigation, Manfred clarified in a letter on Sept. 15, 2017, that future use of electronic devices to steal signals would be met with significantly stricter punishment, including possible loss of draft picks.

MLB doled out its harshest punishment for using electronic devices to steal signs against the Houston Astros in the months after the 2019 World Series, when it was revealed the team continued to utilize a system late in its World Series title 2017 season in which players would observe signals using a camera in the outfield and relay them to batters in real-time using a system of banging trash cans.

The league suspended manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow for the 2020 season, and the Astros fired the two shortly after. The team was fined $5 million, the largest amount in league history, and was stripped of its first- and second-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts. Red Sox manager Alex Cora and New York Mets manager Carlos Beltran also lost their jobs that offseason as a result of their part in the Astros' scheme. Cora was re-hired by the Red Sox after the 2020 season.

To see text from the Yankee letter on SNY, click here. The letter is expected to be unsealed later this week, according to the report.