According to an ESPN “Outside the Lines” investigation, the Blue Jays appear to be stealing signs of opponents during home games at Rogers Centre. Four players confirmed to ESPN that they witnessed Blue Jay hitters being relayed signs from a man seated in center field.
The report states: As soon as each pitch was thrown, those watching the man would call out what they thought he was signaling, and those focused on the radar gun would confirm his signal. Sure enough, the man in white was raising his arms above his head before every off-speed pitch and doing nothing when the pitch being called was a fastball.
Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista was called out by a player in the visitor’s bullpen.
“It’s not too [expletive] easy to hit home runs when you don’t know what’s coming,” the player yelled to Bautista after the alleged sign-stealing was halted and the slugger struck out.
Bautista denied that the Blue Jays have anything to do with stealing signs.
“First of all, I don’t even know how you can do that,” Bautista said. “And second of all, it’s obviously something that’s not legal in the game. We do not cheat.”
The report noted that visiting teams have started using multiple signals even when there are no runners on base and referenced a June game in which Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia started mixing up signs to pitcher Clay Buchholz.