Scouts sue Detroit Tigers: You fired us because you think we're too old

For a sport with the oldest fan base in America, the Detroit Tigers are in a peculiar legal predicament: They're being sued for alleged age discrimination, accused of unlawfully firing veteran talent scouts and replacing them with younger, less-expensive ones.

It has much to do with technology.

Specifically, the former senior scouts allege they were forced out on the "false stereotype" that older folks don't get technology — specifically, baseball analytics and video scouting.

In this case, four Tigers scouts in their 60s got fired on the same day in 2020.

Two of them sued in Detroit federal court this week, alleging the Tigers are part of a broader movement by Major League Baseball to replace older scouts with younger ones, and to rely more heavily on analytics and video scouting. Moreover, the plaintiffs allege, the Tigers used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to terminate their contracts, but then refused to hire them back when the health crisis ended.

And they were still profitable, both during and after the pandemic, argue the plaintiffs — 68-year-old Gary Pellant, of Arizona, and 67-year-old Randall Johnson, of California, who, for more than two decades, spent months at at a time on the road, helping clubs find and recruit top baseball players.

"In any other industry, even in financial distress, they don’t lop off a whole protected class of their employees — especially the most knowledgeable, trained and experienced employees who have been doing this for years," said Dallas employee rights attorney Mitchell Abeita, one of several lawyers representing the Detroit plaintiffs.

Other MLB scouts sued earlier in 2023

Abeita said his clients have sacrificed too much to be "cast aside" by the Tigers.

"They’ve given up time from their families. ... Whether it’s missing a grandchild's birthday, holidays — they’ve sacrificed a whole lot through their careers," Abeita said. "And to be cast aside very unceremoniously like that — it’s a slap in the face for what they’ve provided to the game."

As of late Thursday, the Detroit Tigers were not available for comment on the lawsuit, which is not a first for the Tigers, or the league.

Six months ago, a similar suit was filed in Denver against the MLB and all its teams, alleging the industry has for years sought to get rid of its veteran scouts.

In that case, which is seeking class-action status, 17 former veteran scouts allege the same as the Michigan plaintiffs: They've been forced out of the league based on a false stereotype that older scouts can't adapt to analytics and video scouting; MLB clubs used the COVID-19 pandemic to justify terminating their contracts; and since then, have blacklisted and refused to rehire them based on a belief that they are "too old."

"I think the discrimination that baseball has inflicted on veteran scouts is simply wrong, and terribly sad for those who have invested their lives and careers to the sport," 63-year-old Rick Ragazzo, a plaintiff in the Denver lawsuit, said previously. He was a scout for the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves during a 35-year career. "When clubs are acting together to profile scouts by age and prevent us from being rehired, it's very difficult for most to reinvent themselves when approaching the twilight of their professional careers."

Added Abeita, who is also working on the Denver case: “This lawsuit is about age discrimination within a sport that supposedly values history, tradition and putting the best possible product on the field.”

According to Abeita, the Michigan plaintiffs plan to join the class-action lawsuit, but for now, are suing only the Detroit Tigers, where they last worked before getting terminated.

Plaintiffs say scouts started to get pushed out in 2015

While the MLB is not named in the Detroit suit, it has tried to get the Denver case dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, arguing none of the plaintiffs is from Colorado, and are suing too many ballclubs from different states, citing different laws.

The MLB, however, has not commented on the specific allegations in the Denver lawsuit, stating only that it does not comment on pending litigation, and that it looks forward to defending against the claims.

In the Detroit case, here, according to the lawsuit, is the backstory that led two plaintiffs to sue:

The scout controversy started brewing in January 2015.

That's when Robert Manfred succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner of MLB, and the league began an initiative to reform itself by relying on analytics and video scouting as the primary focus of scouts, the suit states.

As part of this reform process, the league also began heavily recruiting younger scouts, while purging its older scout-staff, the lawsuit states.

Among those to get axed were Pellant and Johnson, who were terminated on Oct. 31, 2020, while working for the Tigers. Both had more than 20 years' experience in scouting, and had worked for multiple MLB clubs.

Their work involved being on the road for over a five-month period, beginning in late October through March of the following year, evaluating players' skills at high school, college and minor league games, and turning the information over to the teams.

Tigers claimed financial hardship

Then came the pandemic.

On Oct. 31, 2020, the Tigers "purged their older employees by dismissing at least four older scouts over 60 years of age," the lawsuit states. The remaining scouts were younger, ranging from early 20s to early 50s.

The Tigers claimed "they terminated" the plaintiffs due to the financial hardship from the pandemic, the suit states.

However, the Tigers never requested a federal loan to employers that could have allowed for employees to keep their jobs, the suit maintains.

And the Tigers were "profitable both during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic," the suit continues, maintaining the Tigers did what they did to the veteran scouts because of their age.

That, the lawsuit states, is a violation of federal law.

"Even if (the Tigers) did not specifically terminate Plaintiffs due to their age, (the Tigers') stated desire to hire scouts that were more adept with technology was based on an age stereotype and had a disparate impact on older scouts, including Plaintiffs," the suit states.

According to the lawsuit, between 2020-22, hundreds of scouts’ contracts were not renewed. In 2020 alone, more than half of the league's 83 veteran scouts were let go.

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, age discrimination has been a pervasive problem in the American workplace over the last several decades, affecting industries of all sorts. Every year, an average  of 21,000 age discrimination complaints get filed with the EEOC, according to a Free Press analysis of government data, though not all complaints lead to lawsuits.

Last year, more than 25,000 such complaints were filed, a 10% increase from the year before.

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Fired baseball scouts sue Detroit Tigers for age discrimination