Yankees appeal ruling that letter from Rob Manfred be unsealed
Yankees team president Randy Levine stands with New York City Mayor Eric Adams during a press conference March 24 in Queens. Credit: Howard Schnapp
TAMPA, Fla. — The Yankees, are appealing a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit last month that ordered that a 2017 letter from Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred to general manager Brian Cashman regarding sign-stealing be unsealed.
The Yankees filed the appeal early Friday evening.
A three-judge panel ordered the letter unsealed on March 21, which upheld a ruling from a lower court in 2020 that dismissed a lawsuit by fantasy sports players claiming damage as a result of endemic sign-stealing in the sport.
The Yankees were not a party in that lawsuit and have maintained that unsealing the letter can only cause harm to the franchise’s reputation.
“The opinion sanctions a serious abuse of the federal courts and opens a floodgate for future litigants to cause more abuse in ways never intended,” Yankees president Randy Levine said in the filing. “If the opinion stands, a losing party can attach any confidential document it wants to a meritless reconsideration motion and get it unsealed, making the affected party a potential hostage, all without ever stating a viable cause of action.”
Manfred fined the Red Sox in September 2017 for illegally using Apple Watches to pass along signs — an investigation spearheaded by the Yankees, who complained to the league about their AL East rival — and the commissioner fined the Yankees a lesser amount for the “improper” use of a dugout telephone in a previous year.
The Red Sox, in response to the Yankees’ complaint, counterclaimed that the Yankees had used their YES Network to aid in stealing signs, something Manfred said in the September 2017 release could not be verified, stating, “We found insufficient evidence to support the allegation.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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