The Marlins may be big spenders on free agents, but they're stingy when it comes to paying their own homegrown talent.
The team refuses to pay its own players with under three years of MLB experience more than the league minimum, according to FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal, a practice that might prompt the players' union to file a grievance against the team.
Due to the structure of baseball's salary scale, players with zero to three years of big-league experience are under team control as far as salary goes. The team has the option to simply "renew" a player's contract without negotiating a raise. However, the Marlins' practice of refusing to give players who have established themselves in the big league a raise could be seen as not operating in good faith, which is where the union could step in.
The MLBPA pursued a similar grievance against the Chicago White Sox in the 1980's, according to the report, but lost the case. But the players getting shortchanged do have a chance to try to make their money back in arbitration, where the Marlins were the only team in baseball this offseason to lose an arbitration case.
"That's one of the main reasons I went to a hearing against them in my second year of [arbitration]" former Marlins outfielder and current Red Sox Cody Ross told FOX Sports. "I never forgot about them not giving me a raise ever as a 0-to-3 player."
With young players like Gaby Sanchez and Mike Stanton beginning to emerge, the Marlins might need to reconsider their approach. Arbitration losses can be expensive.
