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NEW YORK — The U.S. Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to narrowly consider Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption. The filing was made in a case involving four eliminated minor league teams hoping to end the sport's century-old legal protection. MLB cut the minimum guaranteed minor league affiliation agreements from 160 to 120 in September 2020. The parent companies of the Staten Island Yankees, Tri-City Valley Cats, Salem-Kaiser Volcanoes and Norwich Sea Unicorns sued MLB in December 2021 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleging a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The suit was dismissed in October by a judge who cited the antitrust exemption created by a 1922 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
