Norwich — Eliminating Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption would “level the playing field,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal says, giving minor league players a better chance to negotiate salary contracts with individual parent clubs and could help reverse the contraction of the minor league system.

The Connecticut Democrat spoke at a news conference Friday at the entrance to the Senator Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium.

In 2019, the Norwich Sea Unicorns lost its Major League Baseball affiliation with the Detroit Tigers after signing a new 10-year lease with the city of Norwich for Dodd Stadium when 40 minor league teams were eliminated and the New York-Penn League, in which the team played, was disbanded. The Norwich team is one of three teams challenging the contraction in court.

Blumenthal said the Senate Judiciary Committee will schedule public hearings in September or October on the 2020 bipartisan proposed bill, Save Minor League Baseball Act, and will ask MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred to testify.

The bill is aimed at increasing pay and conditions of minor league players, allowing contracts by individual affiliated teams for their own players, rather than having a blanket contract dictated by MLB.

“Literally it would set a more level playing field for the players and teams, verses major league teams,” Blumenthal said. “It would not dictate what the results of new negotiations might be, but the negotiations would be team by team, not Major League Baseball.”

He said right now, the government “is putting its thumb on the scale,” allowing Major League Baseball to dictate its contract conditions. He said hopefully, it also would help reverse the contraction of minor leagues.

“This antitrust exception for Major League Baseball has simply outlived its usefulness, if it ever had one,” Blumenthal said.

Sea Unicorns General Manager Lee Walter thanked Blumenthal for his support of teams. But as the Sea Unicorns have shifted into being a wooden-bat summer collegiate team playing in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, Walter asked the senator to remember the summer collegiate teams in any additional COVID-19 recovery funding proposed in Congress. He said all the teams have been hurt by the total shutdown of the 2020 season, which would have been Norwich’s final year with the Detroit Tigers affiliation.

With the contraction of the minor leagues and the accompanying contraction of the amateur draft from 40 rounds to 20 rounds, Walter called the summer collegiate leagues the new developmental level for top players seeking to hone their skills and get drafted.

As the news conference progressed at Dodd Stadium, the team bus from the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks pulled up to the stadium gate for a noon game with the Mystic Schooners. The Schooners share the stadium with the Sea Unicorns this year.

Jay Miller, Sea Unicorns executive consultant, told Blumenthal his family knows firsthand the financial struggles of minor league baseball players. His son, Derek Miller, played in the minor leagues, advancing as high as AA with the Portland Sea Dogs, a Boston Red Sox affiliate.

Miller said his son’s pay topped out at $1,600 a month, meaning his parents had to help out. “That pretty much covered his food,” Miller said. His son now is a scout in the Seattle Mariners organization.

c.bessette@theday.com