A daily look at New York Yankees News and rumors of interest to Yankee fans:
Carlos Beltran was driving force behind Astros scheme:
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that Carlos Beltran, the manager of the New York Mets who stepped down recently from the position, was the driving force behind the Houston Astros sign-stealing scheme while he was with the Astros. Beltran was the only player named in the official MLB report on the investigation released by Commissioner Rob Manfred, which was issued back on January 15th, which said he and a group of players first came up with the system to decode opposition signs.  After the report was released, it revealed the punishments the Astro would receive, which included: a $5MM fine, suspension of the GM and Manager A.J. Hinch for one year, and the loss of 1st and 2nd round draft picks for 2020 and 2021. Carlos Beltran denied to The New York Post last year he was even aware of a center-field camera — let alone illegal sign-stealing — in Houston in 2017
The new revelations reported by The Athletic not only states that Beltran was involved, but when confronted by former Yankee catcher Brian McCann, he refused to change as offered by other former Astros players. McCann was the Astros catcher in 2017. “He disregarded it and steamrolled everybody.” Rosenthal and Evan Drellich stated a member of the 2017 Astros said in response to McCann’s concerns about the scheme: “Where do you go if you’re a young, impressionable player with the Astros and this guy says, ‘We’re doing this’? What do you do?” In the past weeks, several New York Yankees, including CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka, have talked about their frustration of possibly losing a World Series Championship due to the Astros scheme.
McCann, who was reportedly not involved in the scandal, also had conversations in which he denied any cheating by the team even though former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers outed the scheme back in November.  Since the MLB report was issued three managers have lost their jobs; along with Hinch of the Astros, newly hired Red Sox Manager Alex Cora who was the bench coach for the 2017 Astros was fired, and just days after the Mets announced that they had hired Carlos Beltran they parted ways when he was named in the report.
MLB to go to a seven-team postseason?
The MLB is weighing a new postseason format with seven teams per league rather than the present five. The proposed plan would grant the top seed a pass from the division series while putting the other six teams in the best-of-three series. The No. 2 seed would pick its opponent from the bottom three teams first, followed by the next two seeds.
The New York Post reported: The proposed format, which has been gaining traction among owners and within the commissioner’s office, would see the total number of playoff teams in each league increase from five to seven. The wild-card round would expand from a one-game playoff to a best-of-three series. The new format could go into effect as early as the 2022 season.
Last season, the Astros would have been the AL’s No. 1 seed based on having the best record in the league, while the Yankees, Twins, and Athletics would have hosted three-game wild-card series. The Yankees, as the No. 2 seed, would get to pick their opponent from the grouping of the Nos. 5-7 seeds, which would have been the Rays, Indians, and Red Sox.
The addition of two more postseason teams in each league would keep more teams and fans interested beyond the All-Star break. It would affect the team’s willingness to give up trade pieces and would give teams more incentive to fight for the best overall record in their league, which would be the only way to advance to the division series without playing in the wild-card round. This new best of 3 format would produce 18 games, 12 of which would be elimination games. It would also eliminate a tie-breaking 163rd game.