Harry Marino, the executive director of Advocates for Minor Leaguers, issued a statement in response to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s 17-page letter defending the sport’s antitrust exemption.
In the letter, submitted on Friday and obtained by Sports Illustrated, Manfred challenged the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s inquiry into the exemption in a letter sent on July 18 requesting an explanation on its impact on the minor leagues and player wages. Manfred argued that the 100-year-old exemption has benefitted minor leaguers and the sport at-large.
“We respectfully submit that the opposite is true—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 stated in the opening paragraph.