SATURDAY: The reason the Marlins fired their executives before Jeter’s group assumed ownership of the team is that their contracts will now have to be paid by outgoing owner Jeffrey Loria, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. Jeter’s group will save $5MM.
FRIDAY: The Marlins are continuing their front office housecleaning as the new ownership group prepares to take over, with Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reporting that assistant GM Mike Berger, VP of player development Marc DelPiano, VP of pitching development Jim Benedict and VP of player personnel Jeff McAvoy have all been let go. As with the firings of four Marlins special assistants last week, incoming co-owner and CEO Derek Jeter didn’t make these new dismissals himself. Instead, outgoing Marlins president David Samson was again asked to deliver the news to the now-former members of Miami’s baseball ops department.
It’s normal, of course, to see new owners make wholesale changes to a team’s pre-existing front office personnel. (The only unusual aspect seems to be the fact that Jeter is outsourcing this task to Samson rather than handle the firings personally.) It does raise some question about Michael Hill’s future role with the team; the president of baseball operations is reportedly being kept on by Jeter and Bruce Sherman, though likely in a different capacity since so many of his chief lieutenants have now been fired.
Several reports have tabbed two current Yankees executives as candidates to join the Marlins’ front office — VP of player development Gary Denbo and special assistant Jim Hendry. According to FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman, the Marlins have yet to contact the Yankees about Denbo or Hendry, though many within the Yankees organization believe Denbo is a sure thing to leave, possibly to become the Marlins’ new general manager.
Hendry, of course, is a former GM himself, running the Cubs’ front office from 2002-11. Heyman reports that Hendry has a good relationship with Jeter’s agent Casey Close, who himself has been mentioned in rumors about possibly taking on a front office role in Miami. Close has told people, however, that there are no plans for him to leave Excel, Heyman writes.
Two more names under consideration for front office jobs include Braves special assistant Gordon Blakeley and former Marlins VP of player development Jim Fleming, according to MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro.
As for the on-field managerial role, Don Mattingly has yet to hear about his fate for 2018, Jackson reports, though he is widely expected to be staying. Jeter and Mattingly obviously are well-acquainted with each other from their days in New York. Mattingly only has a 154-166 record as he finishes his second year as Miami’s skipper, though it’s hard to attribute that lack of success to Mattingly given the off-the-field tumult of the team’s sale and the tragic death of Jose Fernandez.
Wonder if either Benedict or DelPiano will find their way back to the Pirates??
Jim Benedict coaching Trevor Williams would be pretty sweet.
Man how professional Jeter was! Sadly that’s not following him in retirement!
There are some who put Jeter up on a pedestal as representative of everything good and right in baseball. The guy was a fantastic player without a doubt but even he doesn’t deserve every praise lauded upon him. While I’ve never met him, I have a difficult time imagining that he even likes the impossible standards that some imply he epitomizes.
The truth is he is just as human as the rest of us and prone to make some mistakes. I would not be surprised if he, at least in part, ponders if he had made mistakes in how the dismissal of Conine, Dawson, Perez and McKeon was executed. It is perceived by many that the matter could have been handled differently.
Jeter is being like how the old George Steinbrenner was. Firing people left and right and bring new people in.
Which is a common occurrence when a new ownership group comes in. How many people in the front office stayed on with the Dodgers when they changed hands?
George Steinbrenner was an interesting man. He would argue that he never fired anyone, just moved them elsewhere. Now, that wasn’t entirely true, but look at how many chances he gave Billy Martin, Gooden, Strawberry, and a host of others…
Steinbrenner actually had the guts to fire people himself.
+1 Baines03
Your exactly right he was old school cut throat!
So bittersweet seeing Jeter associated with another team. Wish him all the best in Miami (unless it’s head to head with the Yanks). They can take Hendry but I’m hoping Denbo stays
Are we *really* saying there’s a wrong way to run the Marlins
Yes men with Yankee ties are on their way.
OMG, why do they post click bait headlines like that! Jeter doesn’t OWN the team yet. The transfer has not been made. He can’t fire anyone. He could tell Samson that they don;t plan to keep them or it could be part of the sale that all of the former executives have to be paid by Loria and contracts terminated, but in no way did Jeter fire anyone. The fact is he can’t.
If Loria was paying a handful of non-managerial executives $5 million, then we know why the team was losing money.
Those executives all got talked up monumentally, and the Marlins also traded Trevor Williams for Benedict, which was ridiculous at the time, and worse now, especially b/c the Marlins could have used Williams themselves this year.