Why is MLB and commissioner Rob Manfred being sued by a group of former scouts?
MLB and its commissioner could be in for a nasty surprise if a pending lawsuit doesn’t go their way. Worse yet are the alleged reasons behind the suit itself.
In a move that is sure to bring increased attention in the coming days, the league and its top executive now face the potential of a civil suit that has come as a result of a very serious accusation. The question now is whether there is any merit to the allegations and if so, what next?
MLB & Rob Manfred being sued
According to reports on Wednesday, a group of former MLB scouts is suing the league, the 30 teams in it, and commissioner Rob Manfred after alleging that their employment was terminated because of age discrimination. It is understood, that the lawsuit was filed in a U.S. District Court in Denver by 17 scouts who were formerly employed by MLB. With regards to their ages, reports indicate that they range from 55 to 71, and have all been working as scouts for a minimum of 24 years.
What do we know about the lawsuit against MLB & Rob Manfred?
Regarding the suit itself, it cites the Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 in addition to laws in 11 different states as well as New York City. It then goes on to state that MLB and its teams “have acted to prevent the reemployment of older scouts or refused the reemployment of older scouts.” For its part, the league has responded to the notion of pending litigation with a statement that says it’s looking “forward to refuting these claims in court.” To be clear, the lawsuit is currently seeking a ‘class-action’ tag with the lead plaintiff set as former Chicago Cubs scout, James S. Benedict, who lost his job back in 2020. Incidentally, the lawsuit also claims that MLB used the cover of the global pandemic and the increased usage of analytics in player evaluation as a means to justify employee termination.
The former MLB scouts have their say
As the person who helped to organize the group of plaintiffs, 37-year veteran of scouting, Rick Ingalls, has been attached to the Los Angeles Angels and Cincinnati for a visibly long time until his termination in 2018. Needless to say, Ingalls was concise in his statement. “We believe the commissioner and the owners colluded to eliminate veteran personnel because of salaries,” he told reporters. To be fair, there is one allegation among the list of them that definitely raises an eyebrow: In 2015, the league - the suit claims - stopped the practice of notifying the league that a veteran scout was available for hire. Incidentally, that was the same year that Manfred became commissioner of the league. What’s more, is that the suit also claims that a “blacklist” was created to catalog older scouts.
To that end, 64-year-old Chris Smith who was let go by the Dodgers in 2020 after working as a scout for 30 years, was understandably shaken by the seemingly underhanded actions of the league. “We all understand that there are changes when there is a regime change, but I’ve been in the business for 40 years, and I’ve never seen anything close to this,” Smith said. “...The term they used was a ‘natural reduction in workforce.’ This was not a natural reduction in workforce. This was, ‘You’re all gone.’”