Major League Baseball's players union is responding to allegations of discrimination against Bad Bunny's sports agency, saying the company was disciplined for “egregious and systemic” rules violations, including offering prospective clients free VIP tickets to Bad's concerts Bunny.
Rimas Sports sued the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) last month, alleging that the association had used a “predetermined investigation” to ban the Puerto Rico service to protect existing agents from competition. The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief that would overturn the league's penalties and allow Rimas to continue representing players.
But in a response filed this week, attorneys for the union said Rimas had incurred the punishment through his own “unethical conduct” that violated MLBPA rules — namely, offering lavish and valuable gifts to prospects to beat them.
“The regulations strictly prohibit such incentives,” union lawyers wrote in a motion Wednesday (June 5). “Player agents should compete for clients based on the quality of their representation, not the quality of their gifts.”
The MLBPA's investigation into Rima had revealed “egregious and systemic violations” of those rules, the league's lawyers said, citing an arbitrator's ruling that Rima's primary strategy was “to create a baseball franchise by luring players with prohibited gifts ».
“Immunizing Rimas from the consequences of his own misconduct will harm players and other player agents by encouraging player-player relationships driven by prerequisites rather than performance,” the association's lawyers wrote. “What Rimas wants is to get out of prison for himself. The public is not interested in such an outcome.”
Started in 2021 by Bad Bunny (Benito Martínez Ocasio) and his longtime manager, Noah AssadRimas Sports aimed to provide domestic representation to many Major League Baseball players from Latin America.
But in April, the MLBPA imposed a series of sanctions against the agency, including decertifying an agent, barring Asad from seeking certification and barring existing certified agents from joining the agency. When Rimas challenged the penalties, an arbitrator rejected the appeal and upheld the union's actions.
Last month, Rimas' lawyers escalated the controversy by filing a lawsuit in federal court that accused the MLBPA of imposing a “death penalty” on the new agency. They claimed the sanctions stemmed from a “bias” investigation that had been launched because Rimas had threatened established services with competition.
“The 'good ole boy' order of baseball sports agency … was compromised as these Puerto Rican 'outsiders' ran through baseball's sports agency order too, too fast,” Rimas' lawyers wrote. “This was something that the competitors of the MLBPA and Rimas Sports would not allow.”
Calling the sentences “extraordinary and unprecedented,” Rimas asked for a preliminary injunction to put them on hold while the case unfolds. The agency claimed the sanctions caused immediate harm, including preventing the agency from completing its deal to sign National League MVP King Ronald Acuña Jr. as a client.
In the original filing of the lawsuit, Rimas did not specifically say what exactly the MLBPA accused the team of doing wrong. But in Wednesday's opposition, the union laid out the allegations in great detail.
According to the filing, some prospective customers were offered free concert tickets, including VIP concert tickets to Bad Bunny concerts and suite access to a Phoenix Suns game. Another player was reportedly offered a $200,000 interest-free loan. “This type of behavior has become a culture at Rimas,” the MLBPA wrote.
The agency was “so dismissive” of the rules on illegal gifts that it continued to violate them even after being notified it was under investigation, the union's lawyer wrote Wednesday.
In technical terms, the MLBPA has filed a motion to deny Rimas an injunction, as well as a motion to compel arbitration — meaning a judge would order that the dispute be handled through a private arbitrator rather than in federal court. A hearing is set for later this month for the judge to consider the key issue in the case.
