MLB accused of 'tortious interference' for dropping minor league partner teams

A judge in New York State's highest civil court ruled on Wednesday that two minor league baseball teams who lost their affiliation with Major League Baseball need a jury trial. MLB, who had hoped to have the lawsuits completely dismissed, took a hit from the order.

Attorneys will soon request the Supreme Court to hear a case challenging MLB's antitrust exemption for minor league teams. As reported by The Athletic, the trial is scheduled to begin on November 13th. One of the issues that a jury would address is whether MLB, the Tigers, or the Astros were responsible for 'tortious interference.'

However, despite being aware of these contracts, Major League Baseball acted indifferently. As reported by The Athletic, Jim Quinn, the attorney representing minor league teams said:

“When Major League Baseball created their ‘120 plan’ to eliminate 40 (teams), there was a contract among all the minor league teams that they would stick together and negotiate it as a group,” said Jim Quinn. “But instead, Major League Baseball — knowing that these contracts exist — didn’t care, and said, ‘it’s 120 (teams) or nothing.’ They forced the other teams to violate that contract, and that’s called tortious interference with a contract.”

MLB negotiated separate agreements with each of the teams that would stay in affiliated baseball when the league reduced the overall number of minor league partner teams from 160 to 120. The National Association Agreement, a contract between the minor league teams, effectively forbade clubs from engaging in independent negotiations.

MLB is facing an antitrust lawsuit.

The court rejected the Astros' and the commissioner's office's motion to seal a significant number of papers, including Player Development Licenses, or PDLs, last month.

MLB contends that since the teams themselves negotiated for a seat in the reconfigured minor league system, they forfeited their ability to assert interference.

In an affidavit to the court, Morgan Sword, executive vice president of baseball operations for MLB, claimed that making the documents publicly available would reveal competitively sensitive details of defendants' negotiation strategies, commercial interests, current business, and financial arrangements, and the manner in which they approach and engage in commercial relationships.

Reportedly, in 2021, Quinn and his company also sued MLB for antitrust violations on behalf of four minor league teams, including Norwich and Tri-City. Due to MLB's historic antitrust protection, the complaint has been rejected several times. In two weeks, an appeal to the Supreme Court will be filed, according to Governor Quinn's statement on Wednesday.

Thus, MLB finds itself embroiled in an antitrust lawsuit, which has revealed contentious issues regarding negotiations and the release of sensitive documents.