Yankee’s letter will no longer be a secret, the court ruled.
Nearly two years after a federal judge ruled that a letter detailing the 2017 Yankee investigation should become a public document, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals denied requests by the Yankees and Major League Baseball to keep the letter confidential.
The Yankees and MLB now have 14 days to decide whether to appeal the printing of the letter.
Plaintiffs in a lawsuit over daily fantasies about the consequences of baseball electronic badge theft alleged that 2017 press releases commissioner Rob Manfred punished the Red Sox and the Yankees covered up the full nature of what MLB found in the Yankees’ actions. Now, with the forthcoming publication of the letter, any differences between what Manfred claimed publicly and the private conclusions of his office should become apparent.
“The Yankees argue that harm would result from opening the Yankees’ letter because the contents would “be twisted to falsely and unfairly create a convoluted scenario that the Yankees somehow violated MLB sign stealing rules when in fact the Yankees didn’t. “- wrote the court. “This argument, however, does not carry much weight. Disclosure of the document will allow the public to independently evaluate MLB’s conclusion regarding the internal investigation (voiced by the Yankees), and the Yankees are quite capable of spreading their own views regarding the factual content of the Yankee Letter. the public and the corresponding ability of MLB and the Yankees to publicly comment on it.”
Echoing what Judge Jed Rakoff said about the letter, the Second Circuit confirmed that a “substantial portion” of the letter had already been released to the public.
“This letter relates to the results of an internal investigation that Plaintiffs allege is inconsistent with a subsequent MLB press release on the same matter,” Chief Justice Debra Ann Livingston wrote. Complaint and discussion of the letter by the District Court in explaining its decision to deny Plaintiffs’ request for leave to amend their Motion for Reconsideration, and since MLB disclosed the substance of the letter in its investigation press release, we conclude that the District Court did not abuse his right to print the letter, subject to the editing of the names of certain persons.
Manfred imposed fines on the Red Sox and Yankees in 2017 in the so-called Apple Watch scandal. The theft of electronic signage did not stop there: the Astros continued to scam until the end of 2017, and in 2018 both the Astros and the Red Sox also stole electronic signage.
The Yankees, Major League Baseball and an attorney for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Photo: Abby Parr/Getty Images)