BREAKING: U.S. Appeals Court rules that a letter that allegedly shows MLB hid Yankees’ sign stealing should be UNSEALED. Continuing to update this story: https://t.co/lUpGi6cBR4

— Brendan Kuty 🧟‍♂️ (@BrendanKutyNJ) March 21, 2022

VIA NJ TAMPA — A federal appeals court shot down the Yankees’ argument that a letter allegedly showing that MLB hid the team’s sign-stealing scheme shouldn’t be unsealed.

The Yankees had said that the letter — from Commissioner Rob Manfred to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman — would wreck the team’s reputation, and that the letter should never have been introduced to the court in the first place since they weren’t part of the initial lawsuit.

It allegedly proves that the Yankees did more than simply improperly using a dugout phone in 2017 around the same time as the Red Sox’s Apple Watch scandal.

In an opinion released Monday by U.S. Appeals Court of the Second Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livingston, the court said the Yankees’ concerns were baseless.

A source said that it may take two weeks or more for the court to release the letter, which is expected to be redacted to protect the identities of certain people mentioned in it.

In the opinion, the court also upheld the dismissal of a $5-million lawsuit DraftKings player Kristopher Olson filed with more than 100 other plaintiffs against MLB, the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox over the illegal sign-stealing scandal that rocked the sport over the winter of 2019-2020.

A U.S. District Court judge had initially ordered the release of the letter, but the Yankees argued against it. It took the appeals court more than a year to rule against the team.

“In light of plaintiffs’ attempted use of the letter in their proposed Second Amended Complaint and the district court’s discussion of the letter in explaining its decision to deny plaintiffs’ request for leave to amend in their reconsideration motion, and because MLB disclosed a substantial portion of the substance of the letter in its press release about the investigation, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in unsealing the letter, subject to redacting the names of certain individuals,” Livingston wrote.

The letter was actually related to the Apple Watch fiasco between the Yankees and Red Sox in 2017, team president Randy Levine said when arguing against the release of the letter Dec. 14, 2020. At the time, the league fined Boston for illegally using the watch to relay signs to players, it said in a press release. The Yankees were levied a smaller fine for improper use of a dugout phone in a prior season.

At the time, Levine argued that releasing the letter would raise “serious” privacy issues and that letters filed as confidential in the suit by the Astros and the Red Sox weren’t being made public.

Levine also argued that the release of the letter would harm the Yankees’ reputation.

Ohhhhhh boy. I’ve alway said when there is smoke there is fire. Can we also address the incredible amount of hypocrisy here if these allegations are true and the letter is unsealed. The Yankees had their pitchforks and torches when the Astros got pumped with their cheating scandal. Anything with the Yankees at the helm I’m immediately on the other side, I don’t care what it is.

The big thing that stood out to me is this line:

It allegedly proves that the Yankees did more than simply improperly using a dugout phone in 2017 around the same time as the Red Sox’s Apple Watch scandal.

Let’s hope for dramatic reason and content that they unseal that letter, because at the end of the day I’m just here for the content baby.