Scouts sue Tigers for age discrimination

The Tigers are “being sued for alleged age discrimination, accused of unlawfully firing veteran talent scouts and replacing them with younger, less-expensive ones.” Four Tigers scouts in their 60s “got fired on the same day in 2020,” and two of them sued in Detroit federal court this week, alleging the Tigers are part of a broader movement by MLB to “replace older scouts with younger ones, and to rely more heavily on analytics and video scouting.” 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.” A similar suit was filed in June in Denver against MLB and its teams, alleging the industry has "for years sought to get rid of its veteran scouts.” MLB is "not named in the Detroit suit" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 12/29).