{"id":9512,"date":"2025-06-24T01:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T01:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9512\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T01:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T01:49:07","slug":"fernando-tatis-jr-sues-big-league-advance-fund-for-exploitative-business-practices-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9512\/","title":{"rendered":"Fernando Tatis Jr. sues Big League Advance Fund for exploitative business practices"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Diego Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. filed a legal complaint Monday against Big League Advance Fund and Big League Advantage, LLC (BLA), a company that offers players upfront payments in exchange for a percentage of future MLB earnings. Tatis owes millions to BLA after agreeing to a deal with them in 2017.<\/p>\n

The complaint, filed in the Superior Court of California, County of San Diego, seeks to hold BLA accountable for \u201cexploitative, predatory business practices, which shamelessly push illegal loans on young, vulnerable athletes \u2014 most from economically disadvantaged Latin American countries,\u201d according to a press release from Tatis\u2019 legal team.<\/p>\n

Tatis, who signed a 14-year, $340-million deal with the Padres in 2021, initially praised the agreement with BLA, telling The Athletic\u2019s Ken Rosenthal<\/a> in 2018 that he signed the agreement because he needed the money to hire a personal trainer, rent a better apartment and buy better food. At the time, Tatis was a prospect in the minor leagues and said he wasn\u2019t worried about the BLA bill that would come if and when he made it to the big leagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not afraid,\u201d Tatis said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to spend that money stupidly. You\u2019ve got to be smart with your decisions, with what you\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

That thinking has apparently changed. According to the release, the suit alleges that \u201cBLA has for years run an unlicensed lending business that evades legal oversight and siphons millions in earnings from California workers.\u201d<\/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 states in the 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

Tatis is not the first player to try suing BLA. Former big leaguer Francisco Mej\u00eda sued BLA in 2018, citing \u201cunconscionable\u201d tactics BLA used to persuade him to give up 10 percent of his future MLB earnings in exchange for three separate payments totaling $360,000. He eventually dropped<\/a> his case. Tatis agreed to his BLA deal while in the Dominican Republic, according to the press release, and many in the industry have raised concerns over the disproportionate number of young Latin players who sign these types of agreements.<\/p>\n

The money BLA gives players is not a loan, per se. If a player doesn\u2019t reach the big leagues, he owes nothing. If he does reach the major leagues, however, the price \u2014 a portion of pre-tax major-league earnings \u2014 can be hefty. Michael Schwimer, a 39-year-old former pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies who is the president and CEO of BLA, told The Athletic in 2018 that his company\u2019s goal is to help minor leaguers guard against uncertain futures. Some believe otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia lawmakers have put in place serious, straightforward protections against predatory financial activity, but BLA has still disregarded our laws to pursue a business model built on prohibited, deceptive and abusive practices,\u201d said Robert Hertzberg, who is part of\u00a0 Tatis\u2019 legal team in the complaint.<\/p>\n

(Photo: Luke Hales \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. filed a legal complaint Monday against Big League Advance Fund and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1266,1306,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-9512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-san-diego-padres","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114735832477332863","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9512","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=9512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}