The New York Yankees could find themselves mired by a scandal just before the onset of the 2022 MLB regular season. According to Brendan Kuty of NJ.com, a court has ruled that a previously unopened letter, which allegedly shows proof MLB covered up the Yankees' sign-stealing scheme, be unsealed. The court denied the team's appeal to keep the letter hidden from the public.

The letter in question was written from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to Yankees GM Brian Cashman, and is believed to contain proof of the team's sign-stealing scheme from 2017. Around the same time, the Red Sox were busted for improper use of Apple Watches to pick up on opponents' signals. The Yankees were in some hot water for their use of a dugout phone, but were sanctioned less severe punishments than the Red Sox. This letter is said to contain further evidence of the Yankees' cheating.

Via Evan Drellich, the team's argument was that unsealing the letter would be problematic in that its content “would be distorted to falsely and unfairly generate the confusing scenario the Yankees had somehow violated MLB's sign-stealing rules, when in fact the Yankees did not.”

The letter reportedly suggests the team was guilty of more than just their illicit use of the dugout phone. On Monday, an opinion from U.S. Appeals Court of Second Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livingston ruled the Yankees' concerns over their reputation and the release of the letter were “baseless.”

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A source told NJ.com that it will take at least two weeks for the letter to be unsealed, and possibly quite a bit longer than that. The letter, when released, will reportedly feature redacted names of individuals involved, which would include Manfred.

The team is rightfully worried about their reputation when it comes to this matter, as if the letter does reveal some damning information, you can expect the league to be up in arms over the possibility of the Yankees' cheating.