December 21, 2021
MLB’s antitrust exemption facing legal challenge as former minor-league teams sue over MiLB overhaul
From CBS Sports
Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption is facing a new legal test. On Monday, lawyers representing the parent companies of four former minor-league teams (the Staten Island Yankees, Tri-City Valley Cats, Norwich Sea Unicorns, and Salem-Keizer Volcanoes) filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court alleging MLB’s commissioner’s office of violating the Sherman Act.
Those four clubs had their affiliate status revoked as part of MLB’s overhauling of the minor leagues last year. That process saw 40 teams in all removed.
The complaint, filed by Weil, Gotshal & Manges, spans 33 pages. It states that MLB’s reorganization of the minors was a “naked, horizontal agreement to cement MLB’s dominance over all professional baseball.”