Yankees GM Brian Cashman Claps Back at Astros Owner

Brian Cashman had this to say in response to Jim Crane's comments regarding New York's involvement in the sign-stealing scandal.

Astros owner Jim Crane is done listening to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman complain about Houston’s electronic sign-stealing scandal in 2017.

During spring training, Cashman told The Athletic that the Yankees were robbed of a chance at winning the World Series in ’17 because of the Astros' cheating scandal.

“The only thing that stopped us [in 2017] was something that was so illegal and horrific. … The only thing that derailed us was a cheating circumstance that threw us off,” Cashman told The Athletic.

Fast forward to this week, in which Crane told USA TODAY that he isn’t a fan of Cashman’s criticism of the Astros due to the Yankees’ own involvement in sign-stealing in years past.

“I found his comments to be extremely strange,’’ Crane told USA Today on Wednesday. “There’s the letter, and you were doing it, too. You were there, dude. What are you talking about?”

Prior to the Yankees’ series opener with the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field on Thursday, Cashman was asked about Crane’s comments – and he did not hold back.

“I don’t think anybody’s gonna dance to the tune he’s singing, to be quite honest,’’ Cashman said. “I’d say it’s called deflection, him trying to equate probably the equivalent of a parking ticket to maybe 162 felonies. I don’t think anybody’s gonna buy into that stuff.”

This parking ticket Cashman is referring to, and the transgressions Crane was alluding to, came from “the letter,” which was released by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred about the Yankees’ using their video replay room to steal signs and relay this information to the dugout.

READ: What We Learned About Release Of 'Yankee Letter'

According to the letter that Manfred sent to Cashman in 2017, the Yankees also utilized the phone in the video replay room to relay signs to coaches on the bench in certain road stadiums where the video room was not close to the dugout.

This occurred in the 2015 season, as well as the first half of the 2016 season, per the letter. The letter was dated September 14, 2017, and the Yankees received a fine for $100,000.

As Cashman went onto note, the Astros paid a $5 million fine, a much larger figure than the Yankees and the maximum amount that MLB allows. Houston also lost both their first and second round draft picks in 2020 and 2021 as well.

MLB suspended Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch for the entire 2020 season. Houston fired both GM and manager following the revelation of this incident.

The Yankees spent two years trying to keep “the letter” private to the public, but it was recently revealed after a dismissed lawsuit between the Astros and Red Sox.

Following “the letter,” Manfred vowed to distribute much harsher punishments for future sign-stealing scandals, which proved to be the case for the Astros. 

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