Blue Jays' Chris Bassitt says Yankees were relaying tips to Aaron Judge: 'We knew it was going on'

The controversy surrounding Aaron Judge’s wandering eyes appears to have reached a definitive conclusion, despite the slugger's insistence otherwise.

During an interview with Jomboy Media podcaster Chris Rose, Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt explained the team’s perspective on what went down and whether it was fair.

"They knew we were tipping, and they were relaying tips," the 34-year-old said in a podcast released Monday. "Is that illegal? No. Is it kind of that grey area, of 'if the first- and third-base coaches are having to relay tips?'... you can argue that back and forth.

"Judge's response to it? I had no problem with it. Was it a lie? Yeah, it was a lie," he continued. "What do you want him to do: Come out and say, 'Hey, all their pitchers are tipping, and I'm going to tell them how they're tipping'? I just think he kind of made up a story just to basically kind of say, like, 'I'm not going to tell them they're tipping. Why would I say that?'"

The explanation from Bassitt provides some insight after the Blue Jays and Yankees squabbled throughout their four-game set May 15-18.

Among the subjects of the beef, Blue Jays manager John Schneider publicly made remarks on ensuring MLB have first- and third-base coaches in the correct positions, a move many saw as petty at the time but one that now seems far more significant.

During the at-bat in question, Judge took a quick glance to his right — apparently to peer over at Yankees first-base coach Travis Chapman — before slaughtering a mammoth, 462-foot home run off Blue Jays reliever Jay Jackson.

When questioned about the glance postgame, the Yankees, including Judge and manager Aaron Boone, vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

"It was kind of a lot of chirping from our dugout, which I really didn’t like in a situation where it’s a 6-nothing game and I know [Boone] got tossed," Judge told reporters. "I was trying to save [Boone] by calling a timeout, like, 'Hey, hold up here. Let me work here.' I was kind of trying to see who was chirping in the dugout. It’s 6-nothing. Boonie got tossed, let’s go to work now."

"I think most of the people in the know know that there's nothing there," the Yankees' skipper added. "I'm sure that will be the prevailing wisdom as it unfolds."

Toronto, understandably, didn’t take very kindly to those comments, as Schneider quickly called nonsense, stating the next day during pregame availability that he "found it a little funny that he was worrying about his dugout while he was in the batter’s box."