The Minor League Baseball Staten Island Yankees say the team is ceasing operations, and are taking Major League Baseball and the New York Yankees to court for failing to follow through on repeated promises.

"We filed a complaint and a law suit seeking damages, because we believe there is damages and our rights have been overwritten,” said former General Manager of the team Will Smith. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Staten Island Yankees announced they're ceasing operations and filing a lawsuit against the New York Yankees and Major League Baseball

  • This comes less than a month after the big league team announced Staten Island would no longer be one of their minor league affiliates after more than 20 years

  • Staten Island was a victim of MLB's decision to cut the Minor Leagues down from 160 to 120 teams

The move comes less than a month after the Yankees announced it would no longer have a minor league affiliation with the Single-A Short Season club.

Since last year, there had been rumors the Staten Island Yankees would be dropped as a part of the league-wide restructuring of the minor league system.

But the team says it learned about the news when the Bronx Bombers released a statement on Twitter. 

"The business as we knew it was going to be forever changed and not in a good way. But it was probably a little bit more surprising than anything, especially when and how we learned about it. But then slowly but surely it sank in a little bit more and we need to figure out what is next,” added Smith. 

The lawsuit claims the New York Yankees promised that as long as it continued to hold ownership interest, the Major League team would remain affiliated with the Staten Island Yankees.

According to the lawsuit, the Yankees still have a 5% stake in the team.

General Manger Will Smith says it is a tremendous loss for the North Shore community. 

"The Yankees have always controlled, all thirty teams have controlled inside the white lines and it is great. We have a great partnership and we control everything outside the white lines and so all those partners in the community don’t have that asset anymore."

Borough officials say there have been talks about bringing an independent team to Staten Island. But the former Minor League team said the expense of running that kind of team makes it "impossible" to pursue that business model.

Ownership of the Staten Island Yankees said a portion of any winnings in the case would go to community charities.

The Yankees or the MLB could not be reached for comment.