MLBPA Files Another Grievance Against Pirates for Choosing Not to Contend

The Pittsburgh Pirates stagnant payroll could cost them moving forward. After three straight seasons of declining payroll, the MLB Player's Association filed a grievance against the organization, and three others, on Thursday according to Rob Biertempfel of the Athletic.

According to the MLBPA, the Pirates, Athletics, Marlins and Rays failed to comply with rules regarding how they spend their revenue sharing money. The Pirates in particular rank as the third lowest payroll in baseball with $51 million.

“We view revenue-sharing recipients who remain in that perpetual rebuilding mode as a concern," said MLBPA executive director Tony Clark. "It’s one area that in collective bargaining we’ll look to increase the club incentives for competitiveness. That’s part of the concern we have had and that we have voiced over the last handful of years, and it will be reflected in our proposals across the table.”

This comes only a month after Pittsburgh traded away star outfielder Starling Marte. The Pirates organization has also seen a steep change in leadership over the past year with executive vice president and general manager Neal Huntington being let go, as was president Frank Coonelly and manager Clint Hurdle. They were replaced by Ben Cherington, Travis Williams and Derek Shelton, respectively.

We'll see if that prompts any changes on the financial decision-making.