Major League Baseball has been ordered to publically release a 2017 letter from Commissioner Rob Manfred to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman detailing the team’s alleged involvement in sign-stealing.
On Monday, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the April 2020 ruling by U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff to dismiss a lawsuit brought on by five DraftKings contestants against the league and the Boston Red Sox.
“The Yankees primarily contend they will suffer ‘significant and irreparable reputational harm’ not because of the actual substance of the Yankees letter, but rather because its content would be distorted to falsely and unfairly generate the confusing scenario that the Yankees had somehow violated MLB’s sign-stealing rules, when in fact the Yankees did not,” Circuit Judge Joseph F. Bianco wrote, per the Associated Press. “That argument, however, carries little weight. Disclosure of the document will allow the public to independently assess MLB’s conclusion regarding the internal investigation (as articulated to the Yankees), and the Yankees are fully capable of disseminating their own views regarding the actual content of the Yankees letter.”
The five men alleged that Manfred withheld findings of what the league discovered during its 2017 investigation into the Red Sox using Apple Watches to steal signs and the Yankees improperly using a dugout phone.
According to ESPN, the letter supposedly will reveal that the Yankees did more than that.
NJ.com reported that it might be two weeks or more before the court releases the letter.
The AP reported that the Red Sox and Yankees were both fined and punished in 2017 for their part.
