Former MiLB Yankees and Giants teams sue MLB that could bankrupt them

The 2021 season of MLB was significant for many reasons: The feeling of “normalcy” with the return of fans to the stadiums, a full 162-game campaign and the return of the minor leagues. However, Major League Baseball renewed the structure of all levels of MiLB, which meant that the number of franchises of 160 to only 120, leaving 40 organizations with no league to play in.

Now, several of those teams that were disenrolled from minor league baseball have decided to counterattack MLB with a lawsuit: According to information from Marc Normandin of Baseball Prospectus, four teams that were cut by Major League Baseball for 2021, the Staten Island Yankees , Tri-City Valley Cats (ex of Astros), Norwich Sea Unicorns (ex of Tigres), and Salem-Keizer Volcanoes (ex of Giants), have decided to send MLB to court.

In said lawsuit filed last December 2021 in the Manhattan District Court, these four organizations seek to end the exception to the antitrust law that MLB has enjoyed for more than 100 years, and which allowed it to disaffiliate. to these teams unilaterally without paying compensation to the organizations and leaving hundreds of players, coaches, managers and other personnel without work.

The case has already been presented to said Manhattan District Court and if it proceeds it could reach the Supreme Court of Justice and in the very extreme case that these organizations win, it could unleash a domino effect in which MLB would be held accountable. for all labor law violations forgiven by the exception in the past 100 years, which would force the league to pay severance payments that could lead to bankruptcy.

The exception to the Antitrust Law was granted to MLB in 1922 and allows it to engage in predatory and literally illegal practices to maintain its dominance as the only professional baseball league in the United States, which gives it immunity from violating labor and employment laws. trade of that country.

Gabriel Delgado

I started as a rookie on Al Bat in early 2018 and I’m going into my third season covering Major League Baseball as a web reporter. I’m a fan of the San Francisco Giants, a number one defender of Barry Bonds, and a critic of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto and Ronald Acuña are the future of baseball, Mike Trout is overrated, and the Astros deserved to be taken away from the World Series for cheating. Besides baseball, I also enjoy soccer, football, basketball, and just about any other game that includes a ball or a ball. I am also an amateur musician, penniless gamer and very nerdy. Graduated in journalism from the University of Guadalajara, I graduated in 2017. Born in the shrimp capital of the world, Escuinapa, Sinaloa. I lived in Australia for a while; i survived giant spiders, tasmanian devils and fought a kangaroo and didn’t die trying.

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