AROUND THE HORN

Minor leagues:

The executive director of the nonprofit Advocates for Minor Leaguers has recommended that Congress enact legislation nullifying Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption as it applies to minor league players. Harry Marino on Wednesday asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to pursue a “Minor League Curt Flood Act” in response to a letter from the four-member committee, chaired by Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat. The letter sent by the committee June 28 asked the advocacy group about the effect of baseball’s 100-year-old antitrust exemption on working conditions in the minor leagues. Applying antitrust law to the employment of minor league players could allow them to seek free agency sooner, strengthening their leverage to ask for better salaries and other working conditions. Marino’s letter to Congress was obtained Thursday by The AP. Advocates for Minor Leaguers has pushed in recent years to improve pay, housing and other employment standards for players who generally make between $4,800 and $15,400 annually. Those players are subject to Uniform Player Contracts when they enter professional baseball, preventing them from becoming minor league free agents for seven seasons. Marino argued that those UPCs keep players from seeking salaries beyond the MLB-mandated league minimums, ranging from $400 to $700 per week, paid only in season. The Curt Flood Act of 1998, which President Bill Clinton signed, applied antitrust laws to MLB affecting the employment of major league players. Marino argued that a Minor League Curt Flood Act would threaten the legality of the minor league UPCs. “Upon being drafted, players would be able to negotiate the length and terms of their initial minor league contracts with their major league teams,” Marino wrote. Because baseball’s amateur draft and international signing period are covered by collective bargaining with the major league players’ association, those structures would remain even with a Minor League Curt Flood Act. But it’s unclear how the sport’s minor league system would operate if players were freed from UPCs. Contracts at the major league level are governed by rules collectively bargained between MLB and the players’ association. There’s no minor league union.

Astros: Justin Verlander got his MLB-leading 11th win, Yordan Alvarez hit his 26th HR and the Astros beat the visiting Royals 5-2 on Thursday to take the series 3-1. Jose Altuve added a HR and three RBIs for the Astros, who an eight-game winning streak snapped Wednesday. Verlander (11-3) grinded through six innings, allowing seven hits and two runs — one earned — with eight strikeouts to lower his ERA to 2.00 in his return from Tommy John surgery. The 39-yearold’s ERA, opponent average (.190) and WHIP (0.97) all rank second in the AL. Astros manager Dusty Baker, 73, moved out of a tie with Walter Alston (2,040) into sole possession of ninth place on the all-time wins list with 2,041.