In a move that highlights the aggressive, if not aggressive, world of player officials, the Major League Baseball Players ‘ Association petitioned a New York trial judge last week to ensure an arbitration award against Rimas Sports professionals.
Agent William Arroyo and two potential providers, Noah Assad and Jonathan Miranda, were found to be violating MLBPA rules that forbid cooperating with MLBPA examinations. According to evidence, Rimas Sports, which is backed by music performer Bad Bunny and has represented Ronny Mauricio, Wilmer Flores, Santiago Espinal, and other players since its launch last month, offered miscellaneous items, including tickets to concerts and NBA games, nice travel, completely lodging, and perhaps loans. The brokers were even accused of attempting to impede MLBPA’s research by offering false information and refusing to turn over documents and texts.

In April, MLBPA imposed a$ 400, 000 good, revoked Arroyo’s agent documentation, barred Arroyo from reapplying for five decades, denied agent accreditation for Assad and Miranda and banned them from reapplying for five years. The trio’s ability to appeal the punishment was cited by the MLBPA’s neutral arbitrator. In September and October, a number of hearings were presided over by arbitrator Ruth M. Moscovitch. Eight witnesses testified, and 228 exhibits were introduced.
In her 80-page award ( ruling ) issued on Oct. 30, Moscovitch found MLBPA had presented substantial evidence resulting from a two-year investigation into prohibited practices. She also concluded MLBPA’s investigator, assistant general counsel Robbie Guerra, was competent, acted without bias and followed applicable MLBPA regulations. Given Arroyo, Assad, and Miranda still have the ability to negotiate marketing and sponsorship deals with players, Moscovitch argued that the MLBPA’s discipline was neither arbitrary nor unreasonable. However, she lowered Arroyo’s prohibited period from five years to three on grounds that five years was” too harsh”.
The trio’s allegations that Arroyo, Assad, and Miranda engaged in prohibited behavior raise several legal issues with MLBPA’s decision to punish them in such severe terms.
Since they were “young agency trying to get started in a highly regulated field with complicated technical regulations and distinctions,” Arroyo, Assad, and Miranda argued that they were not” consciously aware of wrongdoing.” They argued Arroyo should continue playing for the players in question and that no one would have gotten hurt from free tickets or other benefits. Further, the trio maintained the case was “flawed from its inception” since it relied on damaging “tips” from competing agencies that the trio said MLBPA deemed presumptively truthful.

Moscovitch was unpersuaded by these defenses.
She explained the trio’s state of mind in breaking rules is not a viable excuse since” when a businessperson starts any type of new business– whether it is plumbing, a restaurant, a law office, or a baseball agency – the business must comply with all governing laws, rules, and regulations”. In that context, Moscovitch distinguished an arbitration proceeding from a criminal proceeding in which a defendant’s mental state is important for a verdict of guilt or innocence.
There is another type of player harm at issue, which is the enforcement of agent regulations, which a union of about 6, 000 baseball players endorsed and adopted, despite Moscovitch noting that Guerra “acknowledged that no player has complained to the MLBPA about the conduct” at issue. ” They want to see their regulations enforced”, Moscovitch reasoned.
Moscovitch also questioned whether the investigation was flawed because it was based on allegations that rival agents had been allegedly trying to harm their rivals. She noted “it is not unusual for an investigation into any kind of wrongdoing to start with a tip from a competitor, a disgruntled employee or a whistleblower” and added the tips here “revealed potential, serious violations of the regulations”. Additionally, Moscovitch emphasized how Guerra questioned the allegations and determined that Rimas was recruiting players who were not clients to use free concert and game tickets.
Michael Strauss, an attorney who represents a roster of high-profile athletes, celebrities, influencers, and entrepreneurs, told Sportico in a phone interview,” The MLBPA is the exclusive bargaining unit for players. Agents are required to adhere to the union’s rules in exchange for some of that authority. The PA appears to have spent a lot of time and resources enforcing the rules in this case.
However, Strauss did not rule out the possibility of whether MLBPA intends to apply these rules with the same force elsewhere.
” The offending conduct here is not new”, Strauss stressed. So the question is whether this should be seen as a sign of more enforcement activity in the industry or was it merely a deliberate effort to set an example for a disruptive newcomer.
It is also instructive for MLBPA to check the arbitration decision in court.
MLBPA has the legal right to ask a court to find Moscovitch’s award is valid. If Arroyo, Assad, and Miranda refuse to comply, it might prove to be a crucial decision. By itself, an arbitration award ca n’t be enforced since it is not a court order. Arbitration is a private, out-of-court dispute forum that relies on the willingness of parties to accept the results. However, the award effectively transforms into a court order when a judge is persuaded to confirm it.
A forum shopping strategy may include asking a court to confirm an arbitration award, especially if the winning party anticipates that the losing party will ask for the award to be vacated in a more favorable forum. The forum debate also tends to be won by the party that files first. In 2015, the NFL filed a federal court petition in New York to overturn Roger Goodell’s arbitration decision against Tom Brady just before Brady filed a federal court in Minnesota to overturn it. Jeffrey Kessler, who has represented Brady in this matter for the MLBPA ( and for many other sports clients in active litigation ), represented him in the case nine years later.
MLBPA is also aware that the Rimas trio and MLBPA have already filed lawsuits related to their dispute. Rimas brought a lawsuit against the MLBPA in May, alleging that it had violated the agency’s contracts and had overstepped its bounds. MLBPA filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York’s U.S. District Court. The trio received a temporary restraining order to postpone the implementation of their MLBPA punishment after another arbitrator’s decision, Michael Gottesman, was overturned by the union.
MLBPA might have another reason to sue for confirmation of Moscovitch’s award. A document that might have remained secret was made public record by including the 80-page document as an exhibit ( which made it possible for me to write about it ). Public disclosure of details of the controversy should be a useful tool in achieving that goal, in the same way that MLBPA does marketing.