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Rimas Sports, a Bad Bunny-backed agency, is in a legal battle with the Major League Baseball Players Association. The drama between the two parties reportedly originated in April 2024, when the Major League Baseball Players Association, a union that certifies baseball player agents, accused Rimas Sports of wrong distribution of cash and concert tickets to players and sanctioned multiple agents of the company.
This led to William Arroyo having his certificate revoked, while Noah Assad and Jonathan Miranda were forbidden from certification.
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The agency then accused the sports union of trying to destroy its business and asked for the intervention of a federal judge. The judge ruled in favor of the union, stating that the dispute be handled according to the union’s regulations governing agents. Rimas Sports subsequently requested for arbitration of the dispute which MLBPA responded to by applying to the Federal judge in Puerto Rico on August 23, 2024, to hold the agency in contempt of the earlier order of court.
More details on the legal dispute between the Major League Baseball Players Association and Bad Bunny-backed agency, Rimas Sports
MLBPA sanctioned Rimas Sports in April 2024 for allegedly offering an interest-free loan of $200,000 to a player they were trying to lure and gifting the sum of $19,500 to another player signed with the agency. The union also accused the agency of improperly providing its players with Bad Bunny’s concert tickets.
Rimas Sports responded to the sanctions with a statement that the MLBPA,
"scrutinized the agency in a discriminatory, biased, and pre-determined investigation, all designed to put Rimas Sports permanently out of business.”
The agency then sought the intervention of a federal court in Puerto Rico, on May 16, 2024, against the Union’s provision for arbitration. On August 15, 2024, the court ruled in favor of the MLBPA, stating that the parties should resort to arbitration under the union’s stipulations.
In response to the federal court’s ruling, Rimas Sports issued a statement which read,
"Rimas Sports respectfully disagrees with the District Court’s ruling, as we believe that the Major League Baseball Players Association’s actions violate the National Labor Relations Act and require additional legal scrutiny. There are serious concerns surrounding the arbitrary nature of MLBPA’s decision to unilaterally expand its regulatory powers and the significant inconsistencies in the application of its disciplinary practices."
The Bad Bunny-backed agency then requested an arbitration process with the American Arbitration Association, to be held in Puerto Rico, where the agency is based, which was contested by the union, which is based in New York.
In an escalated move, the union has requested the Federal court, which earlier ruled in their favor, to hold Rimas Sports in contempt for defying the order that the arbitration be, according to the MLBPA. In its court filing, the union states:
The MLBPA is mindful of the gravity of a contempt order, but Plaintiff’s defiance calls for nothing less.”
The union’s statement in its filling continues,
"Its latest act of defiance — now, not only defiance of the MLBPA Regulations, but this Court’s Order — is nothing short of contemptuous. Rimas Sports has already forced the MLBPA to incur substantial litigation costs to hold Plaintiff to the arbitration agreement it made. Now Rimas Sports seeks to have the MLBPA do this all over again before an arbitrator and pursuant to arbitration procedures to which the MLBPA never agree."
Rimas Sports was formed in 2021, in partnership with the record label, Rimas Entertainment to represent Latin American athletes. Benito Martinez-Ocasio, popularly known as Bad Bunny, co-founded the sports agency alongside Noah Assad and Jonathan Miranda. William Arroyo later joined the agency as the lead baseball agent.
The agency currently represents several high-profile players including New York Mets catcher, Francisco Alvarez and San Francisco Giants infielder, Wilmer Flores, amongst others.
