The Tri-City ValleyCats are suing the Houston Astros and Major League Baseball over this contraction of underage baseball, reports Daniel Kaplan of the Athletic. They become the second subsidiary known to take legal action against their former parent club and the league; the Staten Island Yankees did the same in December.
The ValleyCats are claiming at least $ 15 million in damages, Kaplan reports. The core of the team’s allegations is that they relied on the now expired affiliation agreement between Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball in the sale of tickets and advertising sponsorships, which lost value when the club lost its affiliation with Major League Baseball has. The ValleyCats remain operational as a member of MLB partner Frontier League, but will no longer serve as a traditional subsidiary.
Tri-City’s complaint (of which more is available in Kaplan’s full piece) has strongly criticized MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. ‘The intimidation tactics of MLB, which challenged MiLB teams against each other for the ‘privilege’ of not having their businesses destroyed, have continued for years, but this is the most vivid proof by a May 2020 email in which Commissioner Rob Manfred expressed the ValleyCats’ owner’s condolences on the death of his father, and then in the same email issued a covert threat that any public statement about MLB’s downsizing efforts would be ‘unwise’, ”Claims the ValleyCats.
The previous owner of Tri-City, Bill Gladstone, passed away due to complications from COVID-19 last spring, says Kaplan, with Gladstone’s son Doug on the receiving end of Manfred’s alleged correspondence.
It would not be surprising to see more teams losing their bets follow the (Staten Island) Yankees and ValleyCats’ lead in the case against their former parent clubs and MLBs. The restructuring of the minor league resulted in 40 teams losing their association with Major League Baseball.