Court dismisses lawsuit that would raise wages in the minor leagues
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit that argued Major League Baseball paid minor-league players below market salaries. The Miranda lawsuit, which was filed by four former minor-league players, alleged MLB rules limited the salaries of minor leaguers, according to Sporting News.
Sergio Miranda, Jeff Dominguez, Jorge Padilla and Cirilo Cruz had argued that MLB’s rules unfairly limited their pay by forcing them to go through the draft process and limiting the size of bonus pools allotted for draft signings, among other measures.
Minor-league players can earn as little as $3,000 to $7,500 during a year, according to the New Yorker. That would put them far below the poverty line. Players will often put in weeks that exceed 40 hours, but do not receive overtime pay. Due to contract restrictions, minor-league players cannot supplement their income by playing overseas, or in an independent league.
The judge ruled in favor of MLB, citing baseball’s antitrust exemption as the reason for the dismissal. Though he dismissed the case, judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. added that he believed the former minor leaguers actually have a pretty good case.
“In short,” Gilliam wrote, “Plaintiffs have a persuasive policy argument that the Defendants 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 and, for that matter, all other professional sports leagues. But that policy argument must be made to Congress or the Supreme Court.”
Even if the plaintiffs were to appeal the ruling, they would have a tough time winning, according to Nathaniel Grow of FanGraphs.
While the Miranda plaintiffs thus struck out at the trial court level, they can still appeal Judge Gilliam’s decision to the appellate court. Unfortunately for the plaintiffs, they also face slim odds of prevailing on appeal, as their case will go to the same Ninth Circuit court that just rejected San Jose’s lawsuit against MLB earlier this year. So it appears unlikely that the former minor league players will fare any better at the court of appeals level than did San Jose.
As a result, the Miranda plaintiffs’ best — and in all likelihood only — hope is that the U.S. Supreme Court will be willing to overturn baseball’s antitrust exemption and subject MLB to the Sherman Act.
Grow goes on to explain that only one to two percent of all appeals are accepted by the Supreme Court during a given year. If the plaintiffs decide to appeal the decision, their case likely wouldn’t be ruled on until late 2016 or 2017. At that point, they would appeal to the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court were to accept the case, a ruling likely wouldn’t come until 2018.
It seems as though the fight for better minor-league wages suffered a significant blow recently, but that’s not necessarily the case. The issue now will be whether the plaintiffs can can the Supreme Court to make a ruling on the case.
Despite Monday’s ruling, this issue to far from settled. In fact, it’s likely going to take years before anyone involved receives a definitive answer.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
