Yankees: Randy Levine set to fight Yankees Letter in court and that seems like a bad idea

Yankees executive Randy Levine is going to fight the release of the Yankees Letter all by himself! Why?

You didn’t think we’d make it all the way to a Yankees postseason run without the team’s sign-stealing letter from 2017 randomly being mentioned again, did you?!

Great. Because it’s back, and it’s back with a vengeance.

While it doesn’t seem like the details of the team’s sign-stealing efforts, determined in 2017 to be roughly equivalent to what the Red Sox did with Apple Watches, will be unsealed anytime soon, a top Yankees executive is now putting it upon himself to go defend the team’s honor in court.

Yankees president Randy Levine, an attorney who clearly seems to be itching to get back in the Room Where it Happens, is going to argue the case himself to try to get the judge to keep the Yanks’ allegations locked down just like the Astros and Red Sox letters, by the way. Levine, a notorious hothead, going in full steam seems like … a crazy thing.

Think to yourself: When’s the last time you heard about Levine making public comments of any kind? When he ruthlessly went after Dellin Betances in arbitration and blamed the reliever for declining ticket sales for some reason? When he was connected to the faux invitation sent to President Trump for a first pitch opportunity, or almost became his Chief of Staff (???) in 2018?

Where Levine goes, flared nostrils usually follow. And if this letter really isn’t a big deal, we’d prefer the team send someone a bit more low key to attempt to suppress its release.

The Yankees maintain their position that the letter’s release “would be fundamentally unfair” not because the team’s behavior must be kept secret, but because it relates to a 2017 scandal that vastly predates the Astros’ scheme (as well as Boston’s), and underwhelms in comparison to their efforts.

The team continues to insist that the letter’s release would cause “irreparable harm” to the team by connecting them with future scandals unnecessarily, but we’d argue all the widely-reported noise surrounding the material has already created such harm in the court of public opinion.

First, we had to deal with an Astros fan who found a random Yankees intern with a camera, a fake scandal which was quickly debunked by insiders. Now, we have the Yanks grabbing headlines once again, arguing in the interest of fairness (Remember, the Astros and Red Sox letters are going to stay sealed, come on!!). But the more they scramble, vow vengeance, and send the big guns like Levine in to demean the process, the guiltier they seem in the court of public opinion. The noise isn’t going to go away here — at least, until 2021, when this case will reportedly be decided.

Yeah, this is going to linger. And now Levine, a harbinger of our worry, is attached. Just unseal the thing and get it over with.

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