The story broke yesterday that Alex Rodriguez, who makes a major league-high $28 million a season, makes more than all of the Marlins combined. The ace on the other side of town in New York, Johan Santana, makes $12 million more than the entire Florida rotation.

While the average salary on Opening Day rosters was $3.15 million -- the first time it’s been more than $3 million -- the Marlins’ highest-paid player is pitcher Kevin Greg at 2.5 mil.

“The Marlins? It’s amazing,” Rodriguez said. “And they still seem to find a way to be very competitive. They have a great pool of talent. They made some unbelievable trades, so they have great personnel people. To win two championships in 11 years, that’s really admirable.”

Most of what A-Rod said is true, though the first Marlins championship was won after a spending spree by former owner Wayne Huizenga. The 1997 club featured Moises Alou, Bobby Bonilla, Gary Sheffield, Alex Fernandez, Livan Hernandez and Al Leiter, and all but Sheffield were signed as free agents.

Still, the Marlins have won more titles in 11 years than the Cubs have in a century. Yes, that’s admirable, but shouldn’t the franchise’s current spending habits be called into question?

Under the most recent labor agreement, the big spenders are paying large sums in penalties for exceeding suggested limits in salary. How are the small-market teams using that money? It should be invested in the franchise, considering the luxury tax paid by the big spenders was meant to create greater parity among the clubs.

Keep in mind that Florida isn’t the only team that seems unwilling to spend. There are other franchises that have spent little with much longer records of failure.

It’s impossible to know how much money a team is sinking into player development, but with the Marlins’ payroll as low as it is, one has to wonder if owner Jeffrey Loria is putting more of that free cash in his pocket than into his team. That would be a grave misuse of the luxury tax.