The Miami Marlins are unconcerned about facing a potential grievance on behalf of the Major League Baseball Players Association over their revenue-sharing money spending habits, according to the Miami Herald. Rather, the Marlins believe they are well positioned to defend themselves should that come to pass based on their read of the Collective Bargaining Agreement’s text.
To be clear: the MLBPA cannot file a grievance until after the season. Even if the union does go that route, these matters take time to resolve and seldom result in anything of note. To wit, the MLBPA’s grievances against the Marlins on similar grounds from both 2017 and 2018 remain pending.
The Marlins are projected to enter the season with a luxury tax payroll around $86 million (according to FanGraphs) despite receiving at least an estimated $70 million in revenue sharing funds. Teams are supposed to spend 150% of what they receive in revenue sharing, meaning the Marlins would be expected to field a luxury tax payroll of around $105 million. While failing to meet that mark doesn’t mean the Marlins would lose a grievance, it does increase the chances of MLBPA submitting a grievance — if only to keep revenue-sharing recipients honest about their spending.
And yet, the Marlins contend they’ve met the spirit of the law (the CBA states the money should be spent “in an effort to improve performance on the field”) by fortifying other parts of the organization, even if they fall short on payroll, according to the Herald.
“We made a significant investment, not only in the front office staff in technology, but we’ve also done a tremendous amount to improve the ability of the players to perform,” owner Bruce Sherman told the Herald last month. “We’re putting a tremendous amount of resources in loanDepot. You haven’t seen any of this, but we’re going to have the second-biggest weight training facility in all of baseball for our players. Our training doesn’t stop at the major league level. We’ve added levels into the organization that we’ve never had before.”
As it stands, the Marlins are expected to enter the season with just one player making more than $5 million this season: Sandy Alcantara, a deadline trade candidate.
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