The Payroll Dilemma

The MLBPA takes the Pirates and the Marlins to task for not spending revenue sharing money on improving the team:

Both teams receive more than $50 million from revenue sharing, which takes money from the highest-revenue teams and gives it to the lowest-revenue teams in an effort to better even the playing field when it comes to player salaries. The collective bargaining agreement specifically says that revenue sharing money needs to be used by a team “in an effort to improve its performance on the field.”

What’s interesting here is rebuilds have been done to great success recently. Both the Cubs and Astros stripped their big-league clubs in a rebuild and ended up winning the World Series. They weren’t getting revenue sharing, but does this mean the smaller-market clubs shouldn’t be allowed to rebuild in the same manner? It’s an interesting subject to ponder.

The Pirates didn’t exactly slash payroll, they lowered it about $10 million. The Marlins, however, went from $115 million to it looks like $90 million. Both teams took a step back in competitiveness.

I will note that if caps on signing drafted players and international free agents were not in place, both teams could invest that money in those areas, looking to improve by building up the farm system. I will once again beat the “too many rules” drum. Let teams spend what they want where they want, and allow all players to be free agents at all times; no draft, no caps on amateurs.

This battle will be fun to watch with Derek Jeter, a member of the union, leading the Marlins. It reminds me of this episode of the sitcom Arnie. The premise of the show is that Arnie is a factory worker who is promoted to an executive position. The episodes follow his trials and tribulations in adjusting to his new position. In this episode:

“Arnie has no heart for the task at hand: negotiating a new union contract with his loading dock buddies. The new executive is still a union man.”

I think Jeter is going to lose some friends in this one.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2BwtFI3