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Players Union Looking into Miami Marlins Payroll Situation?

By Ehsan Kassim |

The Miami Marlins continue to ruffle feathers around the league. The team has drawn ire from their fans, players, and even a prominent agent over the past week, as they continue to run like anything other than a major league baseball franchise.

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Between their deadline deals and the Dee Gordon trade in the off-season, the Dodgers are now on the hook for 25% of the Marlins payroll. The Marlins, by the way, have the lowest payroll in the sport.

This has gained the attention of the players’ union according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.

The alarm bells rang in New York this week not because of the behavior of the Dodgers, but because of the behavior of the Marlins. The players’ union has renewed its scrutiny of the Marlins’ operations after this week’s three-way trade, in which Miami traded players and a draft pick to shed salary, with the return limited to low-level minor leaguers. The Dodgers are covering 25% of the Marlins’ player payroll this season.

What this ultimately means at the end of the day could be nothing. The players’ union could be angry with the Marlins all they want, but that doesn’t mean anything will come out as a result of it.

After the salary purge trade with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2012, the players’ union promised to keep an eye on the Marlins payroll situation. Nothing has come of that, as the team has remained in the bottom 3 for team payroll and continues to find ways to skim payroll.

But the union does have a precedent of pressuring the Marlins into spending, as the union and the then Florida Marlins came to an agreement in 2010, after the Marlins had the lowest payroll in baseball for 3 out of 4 seasons.

“In response to our concerns that revenue sharing proceeds have not been used as required, the Marlins have assured the union and the commissioner’s office that they plan to use such proceeds to increase player payroll annually as they move toward the opening of their new ballpark,” said Michael Weiner, executive director of the players’ association.

The agreement ended in 2012, when the Marlins ironically went on a spending spree and then gutted their payroll, a go to move, it seems for the franchise.

Hopefully the players’ union can pressure the Marlins to spend a little bit more this off-season and keep an eye on the team moving forward. But when you already have the lowest payroll in baseball and another team is paying 25% of that, there are signs that you probably are either too cheap and don’t care about winning, or that you cannot sustain a major league team and need to sell.

Think about that for a second. The team has the lowest payroll in baseball AND the Dodgers are paying 25% of it. That is shameful.

The player’s union may not only be on the Miami Marlins about this situation, but they are likely monitoring the Marcell Ozuna situation as well.

Ozuna was demoted on July 5th due to his porous play. He has posted a .321/.368/.568 slash line in 87 plate appearances in Triple-A, but still has not been mentioned as a candidate to be called up. The speculation is that the team is trying to delay his arbitration, which has both Marlins players and his agent Scott Boras on the edge.

Between the players’ union keeping an eye on the team, the Marcell Ozuna situation, and the on-going saga between the Marlins’ players and the front office, the Miami Marlins are a fun team to keep an eye for the rest of the season, off the field.

On the field, the team is toiling at 20 games below .500 for the season, at 42-62.

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