Mets broadcaster Zeile accuses Yanks of stealing signs; Boone flatly denies it

NEW YORK — Using video with enhanced audio of last Saturday night’s game, former Met and current SNY analyst Todd Zeile charged that the Yankees had pitcher Taijuan Walker’s tips or signs and were signaling their hitters in real-time with whistles.

Zeile indicated that the Yankees were using one long whistle for a changeup and a short whistle for a fastball. He showed a video that seemed to back that up on home runs by Kyle Higashioka and Brett Gardner.

Aaron Boone denied the allegations.

“It’s much ado about nothing,” the Yankee manager said. “There’s nothing going on. I’m certain of that. So I don’t know what to say other than when I see Todd, I’ll tell him so, and I think the people in the know, know nothing was going on.”

The issue came to a head in the series finale when Francisco Lindor homered and made a whistling gesture as he rounded the bases. When Giancarlo Stanton homered, he stopped mid-trot to tell Lindor he didn’t appreciate the implication. The Mets thought Walker was tipping his pitches or the Yankees had somehow stolen their signs.

The Yankees claimed it was reliever Wandy Peralta in the dugout trying to encourage the Bombers’ hitters.

Boone and the Yankees were furious when they believed the Astros were doing this in the 2019 American League Championship Series. MLB investigated and while they later found the Astros had a sophisticated, electronic system for stealing signs and relaying them in real-time to their hitters, they found nothing to the whistling allegation at the time.