DOJ revives Valleycats’ suit
NEW YORK — The U.S. Justice Department asked a federal appeals court to narrowly consider Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption, a filing made in a case involving four eliminated minor league teams hoping to end the sport’s century-old legal protection.
MLB cut the minimum guaranteed minor league affiliation agreements from 160 to 120 in September 2020 and took over running the minors from the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, which had been in charge since 1901.
The parent companies of the Staten Island Yankees, Tri-city Valleycats, Salemkeizer Volcanoes and Norwich Sea Unicorns sued MLB in December 2021 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleging a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act caused by “a horizontal agreement between competitors that has artificially reduced and capped output in the market for MILB teams affiliated with MLB clubs.”
The suit was dismissed in October by a judge who cited the antitrust exemption created by a 1922 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving the Federal League. The teams then asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to send the case onto the Supreme Court.
“The court need not resolve the exemption’s
precise contours,” the Justice Department wrote in a brief to the 2nd Circuit filed Monday by Assistant Attorney General Jonathan S. Kanter and several other lawyers. “The United States therefore does not take a position on whether the exemption applies here. Instead, the United States files this brief to reaffirm, as the Supreme Court has said, that courts should ‘not extend’ the Federal Baseball exemption.”
Valleycats attorney James Quinn said, “The filing makes clear the DOJ’S belief that the exemption is an anomaly which never should have existed. It is a clear signal that if we get to the Supreme Court the government will support the elimination of the exemption.”
After the case was filed, MLB moved to dismiss while citing the sport’s
antritrust exemption, alleging lack of standing and claiming there was no antitrust violation.
U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter ruled on Oct. 26 that the minor league teams had standing and “had pleaded sufficient facts to show an actual adverse effect on competition in the identified market.” But he dismissed the suit because of the antitrust exemption.
“Plaintiffs believe that the Supreme Court is poised to knock out the exemption, like a boxer waiting to launch a left hook after her opponent tosses out a torpid jab,” Carter wrote. “It’s possible. But until the Supreme Court or Congress takes action, the exemption survives; it shields MLB from plaintiffs’ lawsuit.”
The Supreme Court granted baseball an antitrust exemption in the
Federal League case when Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that baseball was not interstate commerce but exhibitions exempt from antitrust laws. The Supreme Court reaffirmed the decision in a 1953 case involving New York Yankees farmhand George Toolson and in the 1972 Curt Flood decision, saying any changes should come from Congress.
Blue Jays:
Free agent reliever Chad Green and Toronto agreed to an $8.5 million, two-year contract late Tuesday. The deal includes options for 2025 and 2026 and could be worth $29.25 million over four seasons. Green is likely to miss at least the early portion of this season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He injured his pitching elbow last May with the New York Yankees and was sidelined the rest of the year.
Dodgers:
All-star pitcher Tony Gonsolin and Los Angeles agreed on a $6.65 million, two-year contract Tuesday that avoided an arbitration hearing.
Mariners:
Seattle defeated Diego Castillo in the first salary arbitration decision this year, and the relief pitcher will get a raise to $2.95 million rather than his request of $3,225,000.
Marlins: AL batting champion Luis Arraez went to a salary arbitration hearing Wednesday against Miami, who acquired the infielder from Minnesota last month. Arraez asked for a raise from $2.2 million to $6.1 million, and the Marlins argued for $5 million.
Dispute: The New York Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments for March 14 in the long-running dispute between the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals over television rights fees.