Stealing signs has been a part of baseball since time immemorial. And as long as you follow these two guidelines ...
- The stealing of signs cannot leverage technology of any kind.
- The stealing of signs cannot involve non-uniformed personnel.
... You're fully in compliance with the rules. This, though, is an age of emergent technology, and the ability to steal signs using tech makes those mandates seem rather quaint. No surprise, then, that teams are attempting to go new-school when it comes to in-game espionage. Recall, for instance, the Red Sox's use of an Apple Watch to pilfer signs last season. So about that ...
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that, in an effort to stanch this kind of behavior, MLB is installing new phones in every dugout, and the league will also now record all conversations that take place on those dugout phones. Rosenthal goes on to explain the thinking behind this new measure:
To avoid detection in the new climate, a player who steals signs by watching video in the replay room will need to walk to the dugout and relay the sign to the runner on the second base, who then would signal to the hitter at home plate — a much more laborious process than simply conveying sign-stealing information by phone.
Obviously, teams can work around the use of the dugout phone when it comes to relaying intel, but it'll be harder to do. The related hope is that, on the other side, teams won't need to take as many time-consuming precautions -- meaning, mostly, mound visits to switch signs -- in order to prevent the stealing of signs. That, of course, plays into commissioner Rob Manfred's ongoing desire to improve the game's pace of play at the highest level.
Whether this makes a difference on either front remains to be seen.
