Mr. Brian Cashman September 14, 2017 Page 2
also admitted
then physically relayed the information to the Yankees’ dugout. that during that same time period, in certain stadiums on the road where the video room was not proximate to the dugout, used the phone line in the replay room to orally provide real-time information about opposing Club’s signs to Yankee coaches on the bench.
Section VI(C)(2)(c) of the Replay Review Regulations (2-14) provides as follows:
The dugout phone will be connected to the video review location. If the dugout phone does not work at any point during the game, upon notifying the home plate Umpire, the Manager shall be permitted to communicate with his Club’s video review location via walkie-talkie. On-field personnel in the dugout may not discuss any issue with individuals in their video review room using the dugout phone other than whether to challenge a play subject to video Replay Review.
The Yankees’ use of the dugout phone to relay information about an opposing Club’s signs during the 2015 season, and part of the 2016 season, constitutes a material violation of the Replay Review Regulations. By using the phone in the video review room to instantaneously transmit information regarding signs to the dugout in violation of the Regulations, the Yankees were able to provide real-time information to their players regarding an opposing Club’s sign sequence – the same objective of the Red Sox’s scheme that was the subject of the Yankees’ complaint.¹
Based on the foregoing, the Yankees are hereby fined $100,000. Please send a check in that amount, made payable to Major League Baseball Charities, to my attention. The money will be used for Hurricane Irma relief.
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As you know, on September 5, 2017, the Red Sox submitted a separate formal complaint and request that my office investigate the Yankees, alleging that the Yankees have employed “techniques of sign stealing and relaying, as well as other questionable methods of gathering information on opposing teams’ strategies,” which have included “using YES Network cameras pointed at [the Red Sox’s] coaching staff and players giving signs in the dugout, in order to gain an illegal advantage in the game.” My office has thoroughly investigated the Red Sox’s claims in this regard and has concluded they are without merit. The Red Sox also submitted a video clip from a YES Network broadcast of a June 13, 2017 game between the Yankees and the Angels in Anaheim that appears to show a Yankees bullpen coach watching the Angels’ network broadcast of the game on an unauthorized iPad in the Yankees’ bullpen. The broadcast is on a one-pitch delay, and there is no evidence the Yankees were using the iPad as part of a sign stealing scheme. Regardless, use of this iPad violated On-Field Regulation 1-2.A.
HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
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