Retired umpires — including Joe West — sue MLB for $2 million

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Five retired MLB umpires have filed a federal lawsuit against Major League Baseball, alleging the league wrongfully underpaid them under its umpires’ retirement income plan, according to multiple reports.

Legendary umpire Joe West (who worked an MLB-record 5,460 regular-season games), Gerry Davis, Tom Hallion, Larry Vanover and Jerry Layne filed a 44-page complaint on Sept. 29 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The lawsuit was first reported by USA Today .

There were five who filed the suit, but there are at least two dozen umpires who were not supplied with the proper amount of money in their pension plan, according to attorney Paul Holmes, who is representing the umpires with Mark Debofsky.

All five of the umpires — who were out of baseball by the end of the 2024 season — in the lawsuit had at least 25 years of major-league service and retired after age 65. Holmes said the five are owed around $2 million.

The five were “paid far less than the full benefit earned under the Plan,” the lawsuit read. West and Vanover received their pension benefit in a lump-sum payment, while the other three received it in yearly payments.

“They retired in their mid-to-late 60s, and under the unique structure of the umpires’ pension plan, MLB tried to short-change them,” Holmes told USA Today on Thursday.

Leading up to the lawsuit, the umpires went through an administrative process, but their appeals were denied after complaints began in November 2021. After an MLB executive told them, “If you don’t like it, sue us,” Joe West recalled, according to the Associated Press .

MLB has declined to comment to multiple outlets about the ongoing suit.

It’s not West’s first time in the legal realm, as he was awarded $500,000 in a defamation lawsuit against former Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca in 2021.