Apr 3, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies first base Bryce Harper (3) hits an RBI double during the fifth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
The Phillies suffered a setback in their legal dispute with a sports analytics company on Thursday.
In March, the Phillies filed a complaint in a federal district court in Pennsylvania. The case was later moved to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
The team's complaint alleged that the company, Zelus Analytics, and its owner, Teamworks Innovations (together, the "defendants"), reneged on a deal by planning to sell certain analytics models and metrics to other MLB teams, including NL East rivals. The Phils say they negotiated a contract with the defendants in 2022 that provided them with exclusive access to the defendants' "Titan Intelligence Platform" within the NL East. They club claims it paid the defendants over $1.75 million for their services through 2024 and committed several hundred thousand dollars more for the 2025 season.
The Phillies demanded a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to block the defendants from sharing Titan with any other NL East teams. The requested measures would have also blocked the defendants from sharing the platform--or its components--with more than one MLB team in any division.
On Thursday, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge James Crumlish III denied the Phillies' request for the restraining order and preliminary injunction ($). But Crumlish will allow the Phillies' breach of contract lawsuit against the defendants to proceed.
© Nathan Ray Seebeck | 2024 Feb 25With respect to the restraining order, Crumlish stated that ($) the Phillies "failed to advance a factual foundation to show that its claims of injury were anything but entirely speculative." The club had argued that they had invested "substantial financial resources" for the exclusive right to use Titan within the NL East, "with the express understanding that no more than six MLB teams in total would have access to the platform or its components."
The Phillies further argued that the defendants intended to circumvent the agreement's exclusivity limitations by repackaging components of Titan for sale to all MLB teams, which would cause "irreparable harm" to the competitive advantages the club paid for.
In response, the defendants claimed that the lawsuit was merely "pretext for [the Phillies] to leverage the convenient imminency of the start of the 2025 MLB season to further its efforts to negotiate a price reduction on a renewal contract."
Crumlish decided that the Phillies failed to demonstrate "requisite diligence in seeking relief ($)," and that the record before the Court did not justify the emergency relief sought by the club.
The Phils' case will proceed without the restraining order.
"The Phillies are disappointed with the Court’s decision, which contains numerous errors of fact and law," the club said in a statement. "We look forward to prevailing on the merits of our case."
