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MLBPA celebrates Festivus
Yesterday the MLBPA filed a grievance against the Pittsburgh Pirates and three other clubs. The MLBPA alleges the organizations aren’t properly allocating their revenue sharing funds. The loud critics of the Pirates management see this as an affirmation of their long-standing criticism of the team valuing profit over winning. Pirates President Frank Coonelly said in a statement:
“We look forward to demonstrating as much to the arbitrator if the MLBPA continues to pursue this meritless claim. It is regrettable that the MLBPA would react to a free agent market that is not to its liking by filing a frivolous grievance.”
I don’t expect much will come from this grievance. The Pirates will defend the way they do business but that won’t be enough for their critics. The Pirates have always had a vocal chunk of their fan base that doesn’t trust management. This was true when the team was winning and it’s especially true now. This grievance does prove those fans at least are slightly correct. I do not think the Pirates only care about profit. However, I do think this shows that the MLBPA has at least a slight cause for concern about how smaller market teams are spending their money.
Could the Pittsburgh Pirates spend a little more money? I imagine this is true for a lot of baseball clubs. However, I don’t think the MLBPA’s problem is solely with the Pirates. This offseason has had a very cold hot stove and I think it’s because you are seeing a paradigm shift in how all teams do business. Teams seem to be a bit more mindful of the big contract to veteran players. They seem more into drafting and developing and then signing younger free agent players.
The MLBPA will never go after the big market cash cows so they file a grievance against the smaller market clubs. This way Tony Clark can say he’s doing everything he can for the players but not hurt future free agents. Teams are getting smarter and unfortunately, mid-tier veteran players are the ones that seem to be suffering the most. Tony Clark is doing everything he can for his players and I respect that. However, I do not think you will see any punishment thrown the Pirates way. In the end, this grievance will simply be great fodder for local media but not much more than that.
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