A group of former Major League Baseball scouts sued commissioner Rob Manfred, the league office and all 30 teams on Wednesday, contending age discrimination, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Denver and contends MLB “blacklisted” older scouts and used the pandemic and the trend toward analytics as a “pretext for coordinated and systemic discrimination based on age.”

The lawsuit alleges MLB and the teams violated the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act and age discrimination laws in 12 states.

“We believe the commissioner and the owners colluded to eliminate veteran personnel because of salaries,” Rick Ingalls, who was a scout for 37 years, told the Times.

Major League Baseball released a statement later Wednesday.

“We do not comment on pending litigation. However, we look forward to refuting these claims in court,” read the league’s statement.

Named as plaintiffs in the suit are 17 former scouts between the ages of 55 and 71. All but one had at least 24 years’ experience. The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status that could grow the case to involve more than 100 “older” scouts and a request for at least $100 million in lost wages and damages.

Per the Times, the suit contends that MLB stopped posting notices when scouts became available to hire, listed older scouts who shouldn’t be hired and used the pandemic as “an opportunity to terminate an entire class of older employees.”

Ingalls told the Times that some of the scouts are in financial straits.

“These guys, when they’re let go, they’re not given a year of severance, they have no health insurance, no paycheck,” Ingalls said. “A lot of guys who are 55-60 when they’re fired can’t take pensions without penalties until they’re 65. They can’t get social security until they’re 62. They have no health insurance.

“A lot of these guys who we’re fighting for are losing their homes. They have kids, and the cost of (health) insurance is off the charts.”

–Field Level Media

The Toronto Blue Jays reinstated first baseman/designated hitter Brandon Belt from the 10-day injured list on Wednesday.

Belt, 35, has not played since June 10 due to left hamstring inflammation. He is batting .263 with four homers and 16 RBIs in 48 games in his first season with Toronto.

The Blue Jays optioned DH Spencer Horwitz, 25, to Triple-A Buffalo in a corresponding move. He had two hits and an RBI in three games with Toronto.

The Blue Jays also scratched shortstop Bo Bichette from the starting lineup for Wednesday’s game at Miami due to discomfort in his left thumb. Santiago Espinal got the start at shortstop.

Bichette, 25, is batting .317 with a league-leading 101 hits, 14 home runs and 46 RBIs while playing in all 75 games this season before Wednesday.

–Field Level Media

Boston Red Sox right-hander Tanner Houck, who suffered a facial fracture after getting struck by a line drive last week, will undergo surgery next week to insert a plate into his face.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora gave the update, adding he had no timetable for Houck’s return but said he expects the 26-year-old back this season.

The team placed Houck on the 15-day injured list on Sunday.

Cora did call it a “best-case scenario” for Houck, who was hit below the eye and temple.

“Sounds bad, right? Fracture,” Cora told reporters Tuesday. “But the fact that he knows he’s going to be part of this, it’s good. It’s the best news we can get.”

Houck was struck just under his right eye by a line drive from Kyle Higashioka of the New York Yankees on Friday night.

Houck, 26, is 3-6 with a 5.05 ERA through 13 starts this season.

He has a 12-15 record with nine saves and a 3.66 ERA in 66 career games (33 starts) with the Red Sox.

–Field Level Media

The San Francisco Giants will measure just how much juice they have left in their busy bullpen when they go the opener route in search of a third straight win over the visiting San Diego Padres on Wednesday night.

The Giants have won nine in a row overall, including the first two contests of the four-game series in walk-off fashion. They received a three-run homer from Mike Yastrzemski in the 10th inning for a 7-4 victory Monday before watching Padres closer Josh Hader walk home the winning run in the ninth for a 4-3 win on Tuesday.

Late rallies and game-ending heroics grabbed the headlines, but perhaps the biggest difference in the tightly contested matchups has been the work of San Francisco’s bullpen. The Giants have received 12 1/3 innings of three-run ball from six different relievers.

The Padres, meanwhile, have tried five different relievers — including Tim Hill twice — out of the bullpen for a total of seven innings, during which the Giants have turned seven hits and nine walks into eight runs.

The six Giants relievers who have contributed to the wins do not include Ryan Walker (2-0, 1.65 ERA), who was pressed into opener duties on Monday. He will start Wednesday’s game as well.

Walker allowed one run on three hits in 1 2/3 innings on Monday, his lone career encounter vs. San Diego.

One reason for continued optimism, Giants manager Gabe Kapler insisted, is that he hasn’t had to use any reliever more than once in the series, so all are relatively fresh. The lone exception probably is Tristan Beck, who went three scoreless innings in Tuesday’s win.

“Tristan has pitched in a lot of down-one or down-two games and has given us a lot of length,” Kapler said. “You look up at the scoreboard and he’s got tons of innings; he’s got a low ERA; he has a high strikeout rate; he has a low walk rate. That’s the makings of a very good major-league pitcher, and he deserves a lot of credit for where we are right now.”

The Padres are set to go the traditional starter route on Wednesday with standout right-hander Yu Darvish (5-5, 4.74), who is coming off one of his worst outings of the season, having allowed six runs in five innings in a 6-2 home loss to the Tampa Bay Rays last Friday. He had won his previous two starts, against the Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies, respectively.

Darvish didn’t get a decision in a 6-4 win over the Giants in Mexico City on April 30, as he was charged with all four runs in six innings. The 36-year-old is 2-2 with a 6.26 ERA in 10 career starts against San Francisco.

Darvish will face a team that’s been out-hit 20-14 in the series but has come up bigger in the most important situations. The Giants are 4-for-12 with runners in scoring position; the Padres are just 3-for-17.

As a result, the visitors have stranded 18 baserunners in 19 innings.

“When you’re doing well, you don’t even think about it. You just go out there and swing the bat,” San Diego’s Juan Soto said of his team’s lack of success in clutch situations. “But whenever you’re doing bad, it gets in your mind. Even when you don’t want to think about it, it’s right there.”

Kapler viewed it from his club’s perspective.

“It’s a team thing that’s happening right now,” he said. “There’s a lot of trust from one player to the next. Guys are comfortable taking walks.”

–Field Level Media