Manfred to senators: antitrust exemption stops city switches

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball told a Senate committee on Friday the sport’s antitrust exemption prevents teams from moving without approval and allows the sport to maintain the minor leagues at a wide level.

In addition, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said many terms of minor leaguers' employment are determined by the Major League Baseball Players Association's collective bargaining agreement with MLB.

Leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked Manfred on July 18 to explain the impact of potential legislation stripping the sport’s antitrust exemption from the sport’s relationship with minor league players. Manfred said the letter “suggests that Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption is detrimental to minor league players and that removing the exemption would improve their working conditions.”

“The opposite is true,” Manfred wrote in a 17-page response. “The baseball antitrust exemption has meaningfully improved the lives of minor league players, including their terms and conditions of employment, and has enabled the operators of minor league affiliates to offer professional baseball in certain communities that otherwise could not economically support a professional baseball team.”

Manfred said the exemption was responsible for MLB franchise location stability. Only one MLB team has changed cities since 1972, the Montreal Expos leaving Canada to become the Washington Nationals for the 2005 season.

“In that same period, 14 NBA, 10 NFL and nine NHL franchises have relocated,” he said. “MLB differs from other professional sports leagues because MLB’s antitrust exemption allows it to enforce a rigorous process that ensures club relocation is carefully considered and vetted.”

Sen. Richard Durbin, an