John Schneider says what other teams refuse to regarding Yankees sign stealing

The New York Yankees won a pivotal game on Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays, giving them a series win and cutting Toronto's AL East lead over New York to 2.0 games. The Jays are still in the driver's seat, but barely. With 20-ish games to go, this division could go either way.

Sunday's game was essentially decided by one big swing off the bat of Ben Rice. He drilled a three-run shot to give the Yankees an early 3-0 lead. The Jays made a game of it and even tied the game in the top of the third, but the Yankees scratched out a run in the bottom of the third and held on the rest of the way, winning 4-3.

Rather than give Rice credit for adding another signature moment onto what's been a breakout year, Blue Jays manager John Schneider instead pointed to his team, saying that they have to be better. He specifically pointed to Max Scherzer, the pitcher who gave up the home run to Rice, as someone who has to be better when it comes to hiding his pitches. His postgame comments speak volumes.

Schneider's comment at first might sound like an excuse, but in reality, he was giving the Yankees credit for doing something completely legal and got on his team for allowing the Yankees to do that. This is the approach other teams should take.

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Yankees are stealing signs legally, and are great at it

To be clear, the Yankees are doing nothing wrong here. This is not a 2017 Astros cheating situation. They are not watching video in the clubhouse and banging on a trash can to relay signs. They are simply looking at the pitcher to try and get a tip. If they spot something, they're relaying it to their teammates. Spotting things on the field without use of technology is absolutely legal, and the Yankees deserve praise for being so good at doing that.

Scherzer specifically was tipping his change-up. While on first base, Cody Bellinger relayed this to Aaron Judge standing at second base. Judge proceeded to emphatically wave his arms around whenever Scherzer was about to throw a change-up. Rice did not go deep against the change-up (although he came extremely close), but he did drill a Scherzer fastball over the right field wall.

Even though the Yankees didn't do damage on the change-up, perhaps Rice would've never gotten the fastball to mash had he not known change-ups were coming. Picking up on tips gives teams an unbelievable advantage, and the Yankees took full (and legal) advantage.

This is something Scherzer himself was aware of even before Sunday's game.

“It’s something we’re aware of, that you can get my change-up out of my glove from first base,” Scherzer said. “It’s something we’ve known. It’s not just the Yankees. Across the league, guys can do that. I’ve had multiple people tell me that. I thought I had addressed it, thought I had made the proper adjustment to get my glove in front of my face, but clearly I hadn’t.”

Other MLB teams should follow John Schneider's lead and be better

Schneider hit the nail on the head here. The Yankees, as long as they're doing this legally (and all indications are that they are), are doing nothing wrong. What's wrong here is that Scherzer made it glaringly obvious to New York that he was tipping his change-up. This is something Scherzer is going to have to clear up, and the Jays need to be perfect in this regard, especially against New York.

“They’re good at it,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Max has got to be a little bit better, and it was obvious on the changeups. Rice just missed the one on the foul homer. It’s fair game. The whole (league) knows the Yankees are good when they got something. … Maybe I’m the only one going to say it publicly, but we got to do a better job of making sure we’re not giving anything away. So, at the end of the day, you got to be tight.”

This approach of complimenting the Yankees being good at something legal while criticizing their own team isn't something that the Atlanta Braves, for example, did earlier this season. Jazz Chisholm Jr. caught something in a game in Atlanta earlier this season and Braves coach Eddie Perez started yelling at him for relaying signs. The Yankees had done nothing wrong, the Braves were simply upset that the Yankees were relaying signs.

This isn't something to get on the Yankees about. This is something to get on your players about. If your players are tipping pitches, that's a problem. This has been in the game for quite some time in some shape or form. The Yankees aren't cheating. Teams simply have to do better.

Yankees deserve credit for pitching tipping prowess

At the end of the day, the Yankees deserve credit for being the best team in the league at this. As Cody Bellinger made clear, every team does it. The Yankees just tend to do it more often, and more openly than the rest of the league.

Bellinger said, “I guess we’re good at it,” when discussing how frustrating it likely is for opponents when they realize the Yankees are relaying signs to the batter... “Maybe we’re just so obvious with it with our motion,” Bellinger said with a smile about their signals. “I think that’s probably what it is. A lot of teams are discreet. We just kind of, if we got it, you know.”

As long as they're playing by the rules, teams should do whatever they can to gain the upper hand. Whether it's by shifting, throwing certain pitches to certain hitters, or picking up on tips, the Yankees should and clearly are taking advantage of any opportunity they have to gain an advantage. It worked for them on Sunday, and as long as teams continue to tip pitches, it'll continue to work for them.