photo: Rob Manfred (Bill Streicher/Imagn)
Over at The Cardinal Nation’s free forum, two discussion threads have been particularly active over the recent months. They are topics focused on minor league player salaries and Major League Baseball’s proposal to eliminate 42 minor league teams.
During the discussion, I was asked about the status of the various lawsuits and how baseball’s antitrust exemption is relevant to the minor leagues. In response, I summarized what I know about the current landscape. Once I did, I realized that others may be interested as well. Hence, this article.
Though many believe the two topics are closely related – that the player cost savings from team reductions may be used to improve minor league pay for the surviving players – this is just informed speculation. MLB has not even hinted of a cause and effect relationship, making other arguments in support of their contraction plan.
The two initiatives are each moving ahead on separate fronts.
Congress has gotten involved as the negotiations between MLB and Minor League Baseball on a new working agreement have grown increasingly contentious. The most recent public volley was a threat from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to create their own minor leagues, if necessary.
Recent national reporting on the contraction proposal has been extensive and comprehensive, so my primary focus the rest of the way here will be on the pay front.
A high-profile class action lawsuit focused on player wages, past and future, was first filed in 2014. It continues to move ahead, perhaps nearing trial. Former minor leaguer and lawyer Garrett Broshuis is one of the leaders of this effort. If you are interested in the subject of minor league pay, he is a must follow on Twitter.
This lawsuit is known as Senne v. MLB. Its focus is on player wages and protection offered under the Fair Labor Standards Act. For those who want to dive into the depths, here is the filing.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.orrick.com/files/Senne-v-MLB.pdf
For an easy to consume update on the lawsuit’s status, refer to this article from August.
Another lawsuit attacked baseball’s antitrust exemption, Miranda v. Selig.
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2017/06/26/15-16938.pdf
It progressed all the way to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case, not because of lack of validity, but because of jurisdiction. Here is a key passage from that ruling.
(Major League Baseball) “should not be afforded carte blanche to restrict the pay and mobility of minor league players without answering to the federal antitrust laws that apply to the employment of major league baseball players…”, though the court held such arguments to be within the province of Congress, rather than the judiciary.
This is likely one reason why MLB then pushed the Save Americas Pastime Act (SAPA) through Congress in 2018, specifically exempting minor leaguers as “seasonal employees” from federal minimum wage law. This is an important reminder why current congressional involvement is especially relevant.
(Here is the link to the article from which the above was extracted.)
MLB’s antitrust protection governing player contracts was broken a half century ago, spurred on by the landmark Curt Flood case, but only for major leaguers. The gains secured did not apply to minor leaguers in large part because they had – and still have – no collective representation.
Here is a section from an article on that subject.
“The preservation of the antitrust exemption for minor-league teams has significant ramifications for minor leaguers. It means teams can promote, demote, or waive a player for any number of reasons, from performance to injury to attitude. It depresses salaries by tamping down competition and prevents players from testing the waters elsewhere, whether with an unaffiliated league in the U.S. or abroad. And it allows teams to include a contractual provision called a “clawback,” with which a team can rescind a player’s signing bonus should he choose to retire before fulfilling his contract.”
After SAPA, MLB then lobbied for a bill in Arizona (HB2180) to exempt minor leaguers from that state’s minimum wage law. The motivation was that state wage laws supersede federal law and minimum wage in Arizona is $11 per hour, going up to $12 next month.
In August, a federal appeals court ruled against this, allowing Arizona to be included in the Senne v. MLB class action, which also includes Florida.
This is important because all training camps are held in one of the two states and players are not paid for their participation in them. It appears a key issue is MLB’s assertion that spring training and other camps including instructional camps are voluntary. The court did not agree.
Details came be found in this article:
In closing
The fight over elimination of 42 minor league teams and the fight for better minor league pay each continue down their separate paths. At some point, they seem destined to collide.
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Brian Walton can be reached via email at brian@thecardinalnation.com. Follow Brian on Twitter.
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