A group of former professional scouts has brought a class-action lawsuit alleging violations of age discrimination laws by commissioner Rob Manfred and all 30 Major League Baseball clubs.
The 17 plaintiffs, who are ages 55 to 71, cite examples that include younger scouts taking older scouts’ jobs because the older scouts lacked the ability to adapt to new “Moneyball”-inspired analytics scouting tools, post-pandemic rehiring patterns that favored younger scouts, and the existence of a “blacklist” that steered clubs away from older scouts.
The 41-page complaint alleges the Red Sox did not hire nine of the plaintiffs.
The complaint also cited an example of a plaintiff being contacted by a Red Sox executive about a part-time job, and that after the plaintiff was quizzed about the qualifications of two younger scouts, those scouts were hired instead.
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When asked for comment, the Red Sox steered the Globe to Major League Baseball, which issued this statement: “We do not comment on pending litigation. However, we look forward to refuting these claims in court.”
One of the 14 counts is based on a violation of the Massachusetts Fair Employment Practices Act on behalf of one of the plaintiffs, Ted Lekas, 67, of Brewster.
Lekas was a professional scout for more than 34 years, spending his last five years with the Atlanta Braves as a hybrid scout, until last October.
“Dana Brown, who’s now the general manager with the Houston Astros, was the vice president of scouting with the Braves, and he called me and told me they weren’t going to bring me back, and the excuse he told me, the reason they weren’t going to bring me back, was because the Braves’ payroll in 2023 was going to be so big, that they needed all the money they could get to finance the salary for the big leaguers,” said Lekas. “That was the reason they weren’t going to bring me back, they needed my money. Which, you know, is preposterous.”
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A spokesperson for the Astros did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lekas is currently the bench coach of the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League. He’d like to return to professional scouting.
“Baseball scouts — particularly veteran baseball scouts and older baseball scouts — there’s never been a criteria for how scouts have been evaluated, whether young or old or whatever,” said Lekas. “There’s been scouting positions eliminated and people eliminated based on no criteria and just based on ‘OK, we’ve got to make changes,’ whatever. And this [lawsuit] is just something that I think needs to be done as far as scouts having some kind of process in place, how you’re going to evaluate scouts and how you’re going to make changes. Changes have been made as of late with older scouts without any rhyme or reason.”
Lekas estimated there are around 100 veteran scouts out of work. He assumes some will join the suit in the future.
Michael Silverman can be reached at michael.silverman@globe.com.