MLB, Teams Subject to Puerto Rico Antitrust Suit, Players Say

Major League Baseball and its member teams, by recruiting a “substantial number of Puerto Ricans” to play ball, opened themselves up to a lawsuit on the island alleging they collude to keep minor league players’ compensation low and deter their contractual mobility, the named plaintiffs said in Puerto Rico federal court.

The targeting and recruitment of Puerto Rican employees “constitutes substantial business in Puerto Rico sufficient to confer general personal jurisdiction over each of the defendants,” the players said in a motion filed in the US District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.

The plaintiffs’ antitrust claims are timely ...