OC Register: Hoornstra: How the government shutdown dampened MLB’s feel-good story of the winter

[AngelsWin.com]

How the government shutdown dampened MLB’s feel-good story of the winter

On the surface, the separation of sports and federal politics looks like a safe space again. National anthem kneelers have faded from the headlines. The Boston Red Sox scheduled a White House visit for Feb. 15, following in the tradition of past World Series winners. A full three months have passed since the President of the United States last criticized a decision made in the Dodgers’ dugout.

This sense of security might not last.

On Dec. 19, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association entered into a well-intentioned agreement with the Cuban Baseball Federation. The creation of a posting system, similar to the one already in place for Japanese and Korean players, promised to “end the trafficking of baseball players from Cuba by criminal organizations by creating a safe and legal alternative for those players to sign with Major League Clubs,” Commissioner Rob Manfred stated in a press release announcing the agreement.

You might remember what happened next. The longest government shutdown in U.S. history began three days later. Critically for MLB, the stated reason for the shutdown – funding the proposed construction of a wall along the Mexican border – pertains directly to the immigration of Latin Americans into the United States.

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In the meantime, government activity has been silent on many fronts, including the future of Cuba’s major league hopefuls. Instead of making preparations for an international free agent class unlike any other, the baseball industry has been stuck in neutral, waiting for direction from Washington with tepid optimism at best. For now, the shutdown has both parties guessing about the future of their agreement.

Shortly after the shutdown, an anonymous official told McClatchy Newspapers that “the administration will continue to take actions to support human rights and restrict the Cuban regime’s ability to profit from U.S. business.” Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) told McClatchy he was “confident” that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would close the legal avenues for Cuban players to be posted to MLB.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Cuban Baseball Federation (FBC) can’t release any players to sign with MLB teams until June. Players defined as amateurs – those between 18 and 25 years old, with fewer than six years’ experience in FCB – would not be eligible to sign until July 2.

One Cuban-born player, shortstop Yolbert Sanchez, was cleared this week to sign with MLB clubs starting Feb. 5. But like any Cuban player who defected from the island prior to the Dec. 19 agreement, Sanchez isn’t bound to the terms of the new posting system.

Government shutdown or not, this was not going to be the most pressing issue in January for either the league or its players. The number of unsigned major league free agents still numbers in the dozens. Still, the last month has been somewhat disheartening. Optimism has been replaced with uncertainty. Until the government gets back to work, there is little the union or the league can offer its constituents by way of legal guidance.

Of course, neither party was blind to the existing political climate when they announced their agreement with the FBC. The subsequent government shutdown hardly came as a surprise. So, why did baseball announce the agreement when it did? And if the agreement is really in danger of being scuttled, what’s next?

Perhaps the answer to both questions can be summarized with a familiar word: politics.

“I think baseball is being smart,” said Edward Schauder, a Manhattan-based sports attorney with the law firm Phillips Nizer. “Sometimes the best thing is to stay low and let the storm pass. The clouds are overhead. Stay under the underpass. That’s kind of what they’re doing here.”

In Schauder’s view, the optics of large American corporations funneling million-dollar posting fees into a Cuban entity, the FBC, represents an opportunity for President Donald Trump. It makes for an easy target. Yet Schauder sees room for optimism that the posting system ultimately escapes federal scrutiny.

“To overturn the deal, a lot of things would have to happen,” Schauder said. “If Rubio barked and said, ‘I’ll go after baseball’s antitrust exemption,’ a lot of people have barked at that over the years. Think about Curt Flood, free agency, collusion. Baseball has had its antitrust exemption upheld.”

Furthermore, the league could be under heightened pressure to disassociate itself from dangerous international human trafficking practices.

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The December announcement came two months after Sports Illustrated reported the Department of Justice was investigating teams’ procurement of Latin American players, and whether they had violated federal immigration law in the process. The Dodgers “figure most prominently” in a potentially incriminating dossier provided to the FBI, according to the report.

Schauder said that “baseball knows what’s going on. … There’s no doubt they knew the Dodgers were on that fine line.”

“I think the reason the article broke, and the reason this agreement came about, is in response to the Dodgers’ practices being investigated,” Schauder continued. “The benefit (of the FBC posting system) to baseball … is (Commissioner Rob) Manfred saying ‘yeah there’s a problem. Here’s our solution to the problem.’ You can see that baseball is being proactive, and they’re trying to get ahead of it.”

Will the government shut that down, too?

We can only wait.

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