Once again, the Marlins’ lack of spending risks grievance from the players union

The Miami Marlins are on alert. Or should be. It’s difficult to consider them part of Major League Baseball when their Opening Day roster of Sandy and the Nobodies will be barely recognizable to the average fan — and even more faceless after the team moves Alcantara, its ace, in a ritual trade-deadline parting.

In December, The Athletic reported the A’s needed to add tens of millions to their luxury-tax payroll or risk a grievance from the Major League Baseball Players Association. The A’s did just that. But the Marlins, according to Fangraphs’ figures, appear to be operating about $20 million below the level the Collective Bargaining Agreement will require by the end of the season. The chances of them even attempting to reach the specified threshold appear about the same as a record snow hitting Miami.

Rather than add the necessary salaries, the Marlins are far more likely to trade Alcantara, who at $17.3 million is by far their highest-paid player. Their approach contrasts sharply with the A’s, who through a series of free-agent signings and contract extensions have boosted their luxury-tax payroll since December by almost $40 million.

This is not the first time the Marlins’ spending has drawn scrutiny under owner Bruce Sherman, who took control in September 2017. The union in 2018 brought a revenue-sharing grievance against the Marlins, A’s, Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Rays, and another in 2019 against the Marlins, Pirates and Rays. One of the complaints was dropped, according to people briefed on the process. The two against Miami remain active.

Such matters often are settled during collective bargaining. The current agreement is nearly two years away from expiring. Having yet to face punishment, perhaps Marlins officials believe the danger in flouting the rules is not as great as it would appear. Then again, perhaps they also are underestimating the potential for the union to expedite this particular case. The team declined comment.

A refresher: A team’s final luxury-tax payroll must be 1 1/2 times the amount it receives from local revenue sharing, or it stands a better chance of losing a grievance, according to the CBA. The A’s and Marlins are expected to be among the highest revenue-sharing recipients this year at roughly $70 million if not more, according to people briefed on the league’s revenue-sharing distributions who were not authorized to speak publicly.

The magic luxury-tax payroll figure for both clubs and others receiving similar amounts of revenue sharing, then, would appear to be around $105 million. No other potential revenue-sharing recipient is below that number. The Chicago White Sox are just above the Marlins at $87.9 million, but they are a revenue-sharing contributor, not a beneficiary.

The Marlins signed only one major-league free agent during the offseason, right-hander Cal Quantrill for one year, $3.5 million. Their payroll will drop even lower if they move Alcantara, whose $11.2 million average annual value is the relevant figure in luxury-tax calculations.

The union cannot bring a grievance until after end-of-season luxury-tax payrolls are determined, so the Marlins are at least eight months away from the issue becoming a prominent concern. A club in violation does not automatically receive punishment, but puts itself at greater risk of penalty in a grievance. When a team’s payroll falls below 150 percent of its revenue-sharing take, the burden of proof shifts from the union to the team.

The CBA requires clubs to use revenue-sharing dollars “in an effort to improve (their) performance on the field.” The Marlins seem prepared to use an argument often advanced by teams with low payrolls: “We are spending. On infrastructure! On technology! On staffing!”

In a news conference at the start of spring training, Sherman and Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix cited a number of improvements:

• The assembling of what Sherman called “one of the largest front-office staffs in baseball.”
• The transformation of the weight room at loanDepot Park into the game’s second largest.
• A $108 million renovation of their shared spring training facility in Jupiter, Fla., with the St. Louis Cardinals, county and state also contributing.
• The construction of a state-of-the-art $15 million player development complex in the Dominican Republic.

“We’ve really invested in the things that we need to build a foundation of this organization,” Bendix said. “This foundation is imperative for us to have the kind of success year over year that we know we can get to, that we know every fan wants. Here today, in spring training, we’re already starting to see the dividends of that. I can’t wait for that to show up on the field.”

The Marlins, coming off a 100-loss season and the voluntary departure of 2023 NL Manager of the Year Skip Schumaker, likely will wait a while longer.

Sherman said new manager Clayton McCullough’s speech on the first day of spring training was the most inspiring he has heard since purchasing the club. Well, good luck to McCullough: Only four players on the Marlins’ 40-man roster have more than three years of major-league service: Alcantara, Quantrill, outfielder Jesús Sánchez and reliever Anthony Bender.

Spending money isn’t always the answer. The Marlins over the past decade repeatedly have been burned in free agency, from big deals for Wei-Yin Chen and Avisaíl García to smaller ones for Jean Segura, Johnny Cueto and Tim Anderson. Spending almost nothing, though, is hardly a solution, either. And it’s not as if the Marlins are bursting with young talent.

Bendix, since taking over in November 2023, has made more than 25 trades. Many involved decent names — Luis Arraez, A.J. Puk and Jazz Chisholm Jr.; Tanner Scott, Jake Burger and Jesús Luzardo. Yet, the Marlins’ farm system ranks only 18th, according to The Athletic’s Keith Law. Baseball America rates it 21st.

Maybe Sherman and Bendix will end up looking smart. Maybe the Marlins’ young talent is as good as they believe. But only twice during Sherman’s tenure have the Marlins fielded anything but a bottom-five Opening Day payroll — in 2018, Sherman’s first year at the helm, and 2023, when Schumaker led the team to its first playoff appearance in a full season since 2003. In both those years, they ranked 23rd.

At a time when even most low-revenue teams are intensely competitive in roster construction, rival executives are appalled by the Marlins’ seeming unwillingness to spend to the level required by the CBA. “They’re sort of saying, ‘There’s no precedent here. We don’t know what punishment will be. We’ll just find out,’” said one executive, who was granted anonymity for his candor.

It’s a blight on the sport. An awfully cynical way to run a team.

(Top photo of Clayton McCullough making a pitching change on March 15: Nick Cammett / Getty Images)

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