Blue Jays reportedly stole Yankees' signs in playoffs after whining in September

Throughout 2025, the New York Yankees weren't decidedly good at all that many things, but they were clearly among the league leaders in picking up on-field tells and using them to their advantage. Many a Yankees rally started with a man on second base waving his arms wildly. It annoyed their opponents to the extreme — which, again, is the point. Your opponent is supposed to be angry and distracted as they fall apart and die.

Late in the season, it was the Blue Jays who threw the loudest fuss after the Yankees got the better of Max Scherzer on their home turf. The Jays seemed bothered by how brazen the Yankees' signals were. Everyone off the field seemed aligned that all was fair in love, war, and baseball (between the lines), but that didn't stop Jays manager John Schneider from acting like only he was bold enough to "call the Yankees out" for doing something legal.

"Major League Baseball knows the Yankees are good when they have something. Maybe I’m the only one that’s going to say it publicly," Schneider said after the loss. Wow. What a maverick.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Toronto struck back by picking up on something the Yankees were doing by the time their playoff matchup rolled around. Surely Aaron Boone publicly peed his pants about this in the same manner Schneider did?

Blue Jays had a tell on Yankees during ALDS beatdown during 2025 playoffs

According to Ben Nicholson-Smith of SportsNet:

"It was a season where every advantage mattered, no matter how small. And under those circumstances it’s noteworthy that, according to industry sources, the Blue Jays picked up on at least one on-field tell from the Yankees during the ALDS — an observation that helped Blue Jays hitters on the way to a four-game series win."

"The sources were not authorized to speak about the matter or share further details about what the Blue Jays saw because the information was sensitive and could impact future games."

Apparently, the Blue Jays would really, really like the Yankees to continue to think about possible tells next season. This rivalry has become dueling examples of sneaking into one another's ear canals before the final bell. Hopefully, by the end of the offseason, the Yankees will have drawn closer to Toronto's budget, and we can all focus on what really matters: blinking, tics, and PitchCom hacking.