A New York judge on Friday reportedly ruled a letter sent from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to the New York Yankees addressing the 2017 sign-stealing investigation must be unsealed, according to The Athletic.
The ruling from Judge Jed Rakoff, of course, follows the sign-stealing scandal which minimally involved the Boston Red Sox and more so the Houston Astros.
The Yankees will submit “a minimally redacted version” of the letter from Manfred by Monday at 12 p.m. ET. That letter will then be unsealed Friday.
The Yankees have argued the letter would cause “significant reputational injury,” according to Rakoff, but also told The Athletic they were “not doing this to cover up some smoking gun.”
“There is no justification for public disclosure of the letter,” Jonathan Schiller, a lawyer representing the Yankees, said in a statement to The Athletic. “The plaintiff has no case anymore, and the court held that what MLB wrote in confidence was irrelevant to the court’s dismissal of the plaintiff’s case. Under established law, this supports the Yankees’ right to confidentiality required by the Commissioner of Baseball.”
Rakoff, however, wrote Friday that plaintiffs have “alleged that the 2017 Press Release falsely suggested that the investigation found that the Yankees had only engaged in a minor technical infraction, whereas, according to plaintiffs, the investigation had in fact found that the Yankees engaged in a more serious, sign-stealing scheme.”
New York Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge both previously spoke out firmly against the Astros, and now find themselves in the middle of the similar allegations.
