MLB today responded to the N.Y. Supreme Court regarding claims made by MASN of "highly prejudicial" comments from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. In a letter to Judge Lawrence Marks, league attorney John Buckley said MASN's renewed claim of improper bias by Manfred in the ongoing media rights dispute between the Nationals and the Orioles-controlled MASN "falls far short of the mark." Manfred last week predicted "sooner or later MASN is going to be required to pay" elevated rights fees awarded to the Nationals MLB's Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee.
Buckley today said Manfred "was merely repeating the position that MLB has taken consistently in its submissions before this Court … and reflect nothing more than his reasonable conclusion that, based on the complete dearth of evidence or law to support vacatur of the RSDC's decision, the decision should be confirmed by the Court. Despite the hyperbole by MASN's attorneys, that is hardly a controversial position to take." Buckley went on to call MASN's letter last week an "opportunistic, last-minute intervention of its lawyers to bolster their faulty argument." A ruling from Marks on MASN's bid to vacate the RSDC decision is expected at any point.
