The Marlins have filed a grievance over the $100K salary that the Nationals are allegedly paying former Miami GM/manager Dan Jennings, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports. Jennings joined the Washington front office as a special assistant to GM Mike Rizzo in January after being fired by Miami after the season. Jennings still had three years and $5.8MM remaining on his Marlins contract, including $1.5MM for 2016, and Miami owes Jennings the difference between that $1.5MM figure and his new salary for the 2016 season. The Marlins aren’t pleased about still being on the hook for $1.4MM and they claim their NL East rival is paying Jennings “well below a salary commensurate with his responsibilities,” Jackson writes.
Here’s some more from around the NL East…
- Marcell Ozuna is looking at 2016 as “a fresh start” and he’s happy to still be with the Marlins, the outfielder told Andre C. Fernandez of the Miami Herald. Ozuna was widely assumed to be on his way out of Miami after a tough season and a reported personality clash with owner Jeffrey Loria, though a trade never came to fruition and he’s still slated to be the Marlins’ regular center fielder. Manager Don Mattingly noted that many players struggle to adjust in their second seasons in the bigs, and that “almost every club was calling us about [Ozuna]…because people see he’s that kind of talent.”
- Almost all of Wilmer Flores’ spring action has come at third base, leading Newsday’s David Lennon to wonder if the Mets have even more concerns about David Wright’s health. The veteran third baseman is scheduled to make his spring debut in a minor league game on Monday with an eye towards joining the Mets later in the week. The club was originally planning to limit Wright to around 130 games in order to manage his spinal stenosis, though Wright said last month that “you can’t have a plan” given the condition’s unpredictability. Flores has played only 27 games at third in the bigs and just one in the last two seasons, so the extra time could merely be the Mets’ way of getting him re-acclimated for an increased workload at the position. If Flores ends up spending more time than expected at third, Lennon notes, that will leave New York thin on backup options around the infield.
- In other NL East news from earlier today on MLBTR, the Mets are looking for a backup catcher and the Nationals have a June 15th deadline to decide on GM Mike Rizzo’s two-year contract option.
How is paying Jennings $100k any different than a player getting released and the new team signing him for the league minimum and the old team responsible for the rest of his contracted salary?
Exactly what I would’ve said. Works that way for players, so I’ve got no problem that it works that way for managers / front office jobs as well.
Yet they don’t mind paying Edwin Jackson 508k while the Cubs pay him $12.4mil.
Oh, those Marlins.
Miami fired him with 3 years left on his contract. He could have stayed at home, written a novel, and collected his check. If Miami wanted to keep him, they could have.
Perhaps the taxpayers would be willing to shoulder the burden?
If they thought so much about his abilities, maybe they shouldn’t have fired him at all. Marlins will stick it to others yet complain about anyone else doing it to them. Still hate their management/owner.
Payment for all the computers and equipment stripped from the then Expos’ offices when Loria transferred his ownership to the Marlins.
As a Marlins fan, I now have new found respect for Dan Jennings after seeing this. It seems like he purposely took that low amount from the Nationals to put Loria on the hook for the rest. Amazing job by Dan Jennings there. So pro
Lolz all around for the Marlins.