It was already a head-scratcher when the Yankees shipped off Andrés Muñoz, a flame-throwing reliever with four years of team control, without immediate major-league value in return. But days later, things got stranger. During a nationally televised game, sharp-eyed viewers noticed Yankee baserunners appearing to signal pitch types while Muñoz stood on the mound, as if the team that traded him was now trying to unravel him.

That sequence quickly became bulletin board material for MLB Now, where the analysts didn’t hold back. Instead of defending the Yankees’ tactics, they dissected them and mocked the irony. Why would a team go out of its way to expose a pitcher they voluntarily gave up? Was this savvy scouting… or a sign of regret?

“It’s the latest on how teams can use scouts, tech, or anything to try to get a pitcher who’s given something away,” said Brian Kenny, setting the tone with equal parts curiosity and criticism.

From there, the breakdown grew more damning. One analyst described the Yankees’ second-base runners as unusually active: “I’ve never seen runners on second base with this kind of action,” he pointed out. “And if you watch Bellinger, where is he looking? He’s on second base and he’s looking at the first base coach. Are you kidding me?”

The conversation took a sharper edge when Yonder Alonso chimed in. While he didn’t question the legality of the gamesmanship, he questioned the wisdom. “You might face this team in the postseason,” he said. “Why let everybody know, especially Muñoz in Seattle, hey, they’ve got something going on?”

There was also the matter of execution. Alonso noted that Muñoz may have been exposing his grip, saying, “I also think he just opened up his glove completely to second base… so they were seeing grip as well, right?”

For a franchise that prides itself on discipline and discretion, this looked messy. The Yankees didn’t just lose an elite bullpen arm; they now appear to be publicly chasing his weakness. And for analysts around the league, that signals more than just pitch-tipping. It signals second thoughts.

MLB now smells something bigger than just an Andrés Muñoz tell

This wasn’t just a couple of runners taking long leads. What MLB Now saw during the Yankees-Mariners broadcast felt eerily familiar and very intentional. Cody Bellinger standing on second base, locking eyes with the first base coach, not the pitcher? That wasn’t random. That was a signal. And according to the panel, it reeked of homework. AI analysis, overlayed glove movements, and real-time decoding, all baked into a pre-game plan aimed squarely at Andrés Muñoz. The Yankees weren’t guessing. They knew what they were looking for.

And this wasn’t the first time they played this card.

Back in 2023, Aaron Judge made headlines for a glance toward the Yankees’ dugout, or more specifically, the first base coach, just before crushing a 3-2 slider from Blue Jays reliever Jay Jackson. Toronto was immediately suspicious. What are you doing here? became the unspoken question. But the postgame answer came later. Jay Jackson admitted to Ken Rosenthal that he was tipping, lifting his glove differently before certain pitches. And it was New York’s first base coach who picked it up. Same mechanism, different year. These weren’t coincidences; they were patterns.

So when Yonder Alonso urged the Mariners to act, it wasn’t criticism, it was advice. “If I’m in Seattle, I’m with Yonder,” one analyst said. “The pitching coach has got to be out there on the mound.”

Alonso went even further, saying, “You’ve got to have better ball security. And I wouldn’t be afraid of saying to Travis Chapman, the first base coach, get in the box. He’s in a position where he can pick up things at first base. If you think something is going on, it’s on you, first of all, to protect it. And then it’s on you to correct it. The Yankees did nothing wrong. Seattle needs to correct it.”

In other words, it’s not cheating, it’s chess. And the Yankees, once again, made the smarter move before the other team even realized a game was being played.