Fernando Tatis Jr. is seeking to void the future-earnings contract he signed with Big League Advance as a minor leaguer in 2017 via a complaint filed Monday in the Superior Court of California in San Diego.<\/p>\n
Tatis might be the most high-profile player among the more than 700 athletes that have signed with Big League Advance \u00a0The $340 million deal that he signed with Padres in February 2021 representing then the biggest payday for a multi-million-dollar hedge fund that has invested more than $190 million in clientele, according to its website.<\/p>\n
For every $50,000 advanced to a player, he gives up 1% of his future earnings. If Tatis chose the maximum $500,000, his deal would send $34 million over the life of Tatis\u2019 contract with the Padres back to BLA.<\/p>\n
Tatis did not sign his BLA contract in California, but he is seeking legal recourse for both himself and future players based on California consumer protection laws that are applicable because Tatis is employed by the San Diego Padres<\/p>\n
\u201cBLA is an unlicensed lender issuing illegal loans,\u201d said Robert Hertzberg, a former Speaker of the California State Assembly and Majority Leaguer of the California senate who has joined Tatis\u2019 team in the legal complaint.<\/p>\n
Tatis\u2019 team claims that BLA used manipulative and unlawful tactics to lure him into an investment deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fighting this battle not just for myself but for everyone still chasing their dream and hoping to provide a better life for their family,\u201d Tatis said in a news release. \u201cI want to help protect those young players who don\u2019t yet know how to protect themselves from these predatory lenders and illegal financial schemes \u2014 kids\u2019 focus should be on their passion for baseball, not dodging shady business deals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Schwimer, the founder, president and CEO of Big League Advance, told the Union-Tribune in February 2021 that the deal with Tatis was finalized after a three-hour dinner in the Dominican Republic in 2017 with an 18-year-old Tatis and his father, a veteran of 11 seasons in Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n
Tatis\u2019 deal with BLA only became public, Schwimer said then, because Tatis was standing up for the company in the wake of lawsuit that one-time Guardians prospect Francisco Mejia filed in April 2018.<\/p>\n
Mejia had been traded to the Padres later that year when he dropped the lawsuit, agreed to pay a portion of BLA\u2019s legal fees and issued an apology that stated, in part, that \u201cBLA offers a great option for all minor league players, and one that worked for me and helped me focus on baseball and fulfill my dream of reaching the major leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Tatis signed his $340 million deal with the Padres, he briefly addressed his contract with BLA.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a family decision,\u201d Tatis said. \u201cI\u2019m just going to call it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: June 23, 2025 at 3:03 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Tatis Jr. is seeking to void the future-earnings contract he signed with Big League Advance as a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-9100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}