This One's On Us

Lost in the all of Mark McGwire’s blubbering re-write of baseball history was a remarkable joint statement from the Major League Baseball Players Association, the office of the Commissioner of Baseball (once and always used-car salesman Bud Selig) and the Florida Marlins.

The statement, released yesterday, essentially says: 1) the Players Association thinks the Marlins aren’t spending enough on players, 2) the Marlins think they are doing everything they can, and 3)MLB wishes everyone would just shut up.

Here’s the thing, revenue sharing has been a part of the game for almost 10 years now. Under this system the top-earning teams (re: the Yankees) provide a cut of their profits to the teams that make less (that would be your Marlins, Pirates, Royals, Nationals, etc). The idea is that this money will be spent on improving the quality of the on-field product and thus the bad teams get better and the playing field tilts to something slightly closer to level.

The problems with this system are many, not the least of which is there is no rule that says the teams receiving money necessarily have to put that money into player payroll. Several teams – such as the Pittsburgh Pirates and the aforementioned Florida Marlins – have often been accused of spending less on payroll than they receive from revenue sharing.

Here’s what Jayson Stark had to say regarding the Marlins (and Pirates) back in November (thanks to bizofbaseball for the link):

Your team collected more money this season -- before it ever sold one ticket -- than it spent on its entire major league payroll. In fact, it collected more than it spent on its major league payroll and its player-development system combined.

The official statement released yesterday likely came out at the urging of the Players’ Association (the Marlins certainly didn’t want to go public with this, and MLB is trying desperately to keep the whole thing under wraps). One of the MLBPA’s primary objectives is to see that all baseball players are compensated fairly, and the Marlins seem to be treating their players like David Letterman treats his assistants - they're paid poorly and screwed often.

I know what you're thinking, "Oh, those poor millionaires!" But look at it this way, the 2008 Marlins’ Opening Day roster had combined salaries of $21.8 million. By contrast, Alex Rodriguez made $28 million that season. The average MLB player earned $3.15 million. The Marlins’ top paid player in 2008, relief pitcher Kevin Gregg, earned $2.5 million. (Thanks to the San Francisco Gate for these admittedly out-of-date figures.)

Despite this, the 2009 Marlins started out 11-1 and went on to record their third-best season ever compiling an 87-75 record. They have a cheap young core of players headed by shortstop Hanley Ramirez and starting pitcher Josh Johnson. And they manhandled Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami into paying for the majority of the cost on a new state of the art stadium (see my past article on the subject: Changing the Fish Bowl).

In the end, what the Marlins are doing is not only within the rules of the game but it appears to be an incredibly viable strategy for constructing a Championship-caliber team … once every ten years or so. In the meantime, teams like the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers and Cubs will just have to pick up the tab.

No, no, don’t worry, Uncle Florida. It’s fine. This one’s on us.