MLB will pay 185 MDD to resolve collective MiLB demand

Major League Baseball will pay $185 million to settle the class action lawsuit filed by minor leaguers nearly a decade ago, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported. Athletic’s Evan Drellich adds that the league will lift any “contractual bans against (teams) pay salaries to minor league players” for work outside of the regular season. The settlement is pending final court approval.

It is the culmination of a lawsuit first filed in 2014. Among other aspects of minor league pay, the litigation concerned the unpaid spring training process. MLB came under public criticism for arguing that players remembered unpaid spring training in February:

However, that was unsuccessful. The following month, the trial court rejected the league’s argument that minor league players were temporary employees exempt from minimum wage laws.

The case was set for trial on June 1, but the parties reached a settlement agreement in mid-May. Terms were not disclosed at the time, but the league apparently agreed to dole out $185 million in back pay.

You can also read: Class action status approved in minimum wage case against MLB

Passan notes that more than $120 million of that figure will be distributed among the class of players involved (with the rest presumably going to court costs and attorney fees). One of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, former minor leaguer Garrett Broshuis, tells Drellich that more than 20,000 players are expected to share those funds.

Raphael Martinez

I am a fan of the King of Sports, especially the Boston Red Sox in MLB and all Mexican baseball in general. This profession has given me the opportunity to cover major events such as the Caribbean Series, LMB All Star, LMP (uninterruptedly since 2009), signatures of important players. I had the chance to attend the 2013 World Classic in Arizona, USA, although as a fan. Apart from this beautiful sport, I love basketball, where I have also narrated games and even an NBA friendly 10 years ago, but I have baseball in my veins. Degree in Communication Sciences from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS) , from which I graduated in 2011. I was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa and started in the world of sports journalism in 2004 in the newspaper El Sol de Mazatlán, where I was a baseball columnist and a reporter at the same time. In January 2009 I arrived at El Debate as a journalist reporter and it was almost six years (in the first stage), until in November 2014 I emigrated to the radio providing my services at Línea Directa-Grupo RSN. My cycle there ended in July 2019 and a few days later, El Debate gave me another opportunity to work and opened the doors for me again. This is how I came to Al Bat, where I have been since 2019 as a web journalist.

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