The Staten Island Yankees are the Class A (short season) affiliates of the New York Yankees, but even the lower-level club is getting in on mocking the Astros cheating scandal.
As part of a promotion for Staten Island’s game against the Houston-affiliate Tri-City ValleyCats, the Yankees are planning to give away mini trash cans to the first 500 fans in attendance. The big-league Astros, of course, used a trashcan to relay off-speed pitches to the batter as part of their cheating scheme.
MLB issued its punishment to the Astros on Monday, suspending now-former manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow for a year, docking first and second round picks for the next two MLB Drafts and fining the club $5 million.
But hey, free mini trash cans!
It’s unlikely that the New York Yankees were tuned in to this promotion as even the Yankees were fined in 2017 for using the replay room to decode the sign sequences of opposing teams. In a league where cheating and sign-stealing are realistically running rampant, this is the kind of promotion that could backfire.
But on the other hand, I appreciate the creativity and response time that went into trolling the Astros here. We’ll have to see if the giveaway actually happens on Sept. 3.
