MLBPA Contacted Rob Manfred About Marlins, Pirates Trades to Shed Payroll

The Major League Baseball Players Association contacted commissioner Rob Manfred to express concerns over the Miami Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates' business practices this offseason.

Per Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, the players association was expressly concerned about the Marlins' slashing of payroll under their new ownership group with Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter.

MLBPA spokesman Greg Bouris told Jackson the concerns raised with Manfred about the Marlins and Pirates are part of protocol.

"We have raised our concerns regarding both Miami and Pittsburgh with the commisioner, as is the protocol under the collective bargaining agreement and its revenue sharing provisions," Bouris said. "We are waiting to have further dialogue and that will dictate our next steps."

The Marlins have gutted their payroll since the end of last season.

Trades that sent Giancarlo Stanton to the New York Yankees, Dee Gordon to the Seattle Mariners, Marcell Ozuna to the St. Louis Cardinals and, most recently, Christian Yelich to the Milwaukee Brewers cleared $51.5 million in 2018 salary for the Marlins, per Cot's Baseball Contracts.

The Pirates have dealt Gerrit Cole to the Houston Astros and Andrew McCutchen to the San Francisco Giants. McCutchen had his $14.5 million option for 2018 exercised by Pittsburgh in November.

Jackson added the Marlins could receive up to $160 million from MLB between revenue sharing, national television contracts and a payout from the sale of MLB technology company BAMTech to Disney last August.

The Marlins were in a similar position in 2010 when the union complained about their lack of investment in player payroll, which Jackson noted led the team to "spend more than they had planned" to satisfy MLB and the players association.