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The Yankees Letter was unsealed on Tuesday, with many expecting a bombshell report of cheating allegations against the New York Yankees to be brought forth. Well, after SNY obtained the documents, it turns out the report wasn't much of anything. Via Jeff Passan, the Yankees Letter revealed the team used their replay room to decode signs from catchers and relay that information to runners on second base.
The infamous Yankees Letter … is pretty much a nothing-burger. Says the Yankees used their replay room to decode catchers' signs and relay them to runners on second — which multiple teams were doing. Does not find they were illicitly using CF camera. @martinonyc had it first.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 26, 2022
The key takeaway from the document was that the Yankees were not found to have been illicitly using cameras out in center field in order to pick up signs, which was a key aspect of what the Houston Astros were busted for doing.
The upshot: The Yankees (and Red Sox) were illegally using the replay room to steal signs, but neither scheme was anything close to what the Astros were doing with trash cans. Other teams were very likely doing similar things to New York and Boston. That element spanned the game.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 26, 2022
The document also indicated the Red Sox were participating in similar practices as the Yankees, though neither club committed infractions nearly as severe as that of the Astros. Passan notes that it was widely believed that various other teams participated in similar sign-stealing tactics as the Red Sox and Yankees, further indicating what they were doing was nothing outrageous.
This certainly spells a different narrative than what the Yankees had been fearing. Reports indicated the Yankees were worried that the infamous letter would have damning impacts on the franchise's reputation. In reality, there's not too much that was unearthed by these reports that wasn't already known, or at the very least widely suspected.
THREAD: Let’s start with some facts.
The New York Yankees cheated.
The Boston Red Sox cheated.
The Houston Astros cheated.
All of them used technology in real time to steal signs. (1/9)
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 26, 2022
The fact of the matter remains, however, that all three of the Yankees, Astros, and Red Sox cheated. Still, it's hard to deny there was a different level of severity between the rulebreaking committed by the three teams, as Houston's antics were far more advanced and impactful than that of New York or Boston's.
