Marlins CEO Derek Jeter addressed his organization’s outlook and near-term spending plans in an appearance yesterday. David Wilson of the Miami Herald was among those to cover the chat.
Jeter offered up a bit of a soundbite when he responded to a question about pursuing a given player that the organization likes in free agency. “We’ll go get him,” Jeter provided.
There was a proviso, however. “If a guy fits with our plan and what we’re trying to do, we’ll go get him,” Jeter continued. “I should say, make an attempt to get him.”
There’s a price for every team on every player of interest. But the Fish won’t necessarily be swimming in the deep end just yet. “We must be responsible,” Jeter explained.
Nobody expected the Marlins to plunk down major cash for a premium free agent or to clog up their roster with an array of veterans. In a broadly competitive National League landscape, the Miami roster is obviously far shy of contention-quality.
Still, it’s arguably time that the club begin moving towards a winning outfit after two seasons under Jeter’s helm. And there are opportunities for value in free agency, even for a team that has no plausible hope of winning during the term of a contract. Beyond the veteran leadership component, some wise investments can generate trade returns (and perhaps stave off grievances from the players’ union).
So, what does a “responsible” offseason look like? Details were not forthcoming, unsurprisingly, but Jeter did suggest the focus was less on payroll and more on roster space and opportunity. While there’s certainly some corporate-speak in there, there’s also some underlying merit.
[RELATED: Offseason Outlook: Miami Marlins]
Jeter spoke of the “challenging year” ahead, with the team “filling gaps” while “not blocking the young prospects.” It stands to reason there’ll be some exploration of more opportunistic pursuits, though that wasn’t an item raised by the soon-to-be-Hall-of-Famer.
At the end of the day, the ongoing focus is clear. “We have to stick with the plan,” says Jeter, “and our plan is to build a system the right way, which we’ve made a lot of progress in two years.”
Don’t know about the Zac Gallen for Chisholm trade… but other then that, Jeter’s done a fine job thus far.
Like what?
Spent incredibly more money on facilities here and in the Latin America. Spending on analytics and coaching. Spending as much money on Int’l Prospects as possible (never done that before), drafting and signing FA’s without trying to save money, building up the farm
For long term success, not just a quick couple year run and rebuild, and they have been very clear that when its time, they will spend more than any other ownership has. Which may mean contract extensions and keeping the core together along with maybe a couple FA’s here and there while constantly having a farm ready to replenish the majors. So they hav a done a lot.
He traded Stanton for garbage. He traded Yelich for garbage.
We traded Stanton to get rid of the contract. And FYI, the prospects they got from the Yankees were specifically selected by Gary Denbo, the same guy that built the current Yankees with developing the farm that has developed Judge, Sanchez, Torres and the rest of the young players on their MLB roster.
And I wonder if the Yankees loved paying for Stanton’s production this year.
Yeah, the Marlins clearly did a bad job in that deal. Keep believing what E!SPN and FOX told you.
Get over it, Stanton has the worst contract in the majors right now and Yelich was a shadow of what he is now and made it clear and public that he did not wanted to be in Miami.
Why do you say the return on Yelich was garbage when most of the players in that deal are just now reaching the minor leagues? It shows a lack of understanding of these types of deals.
Of they are just now reaching the minor league were they in HS the lat two years? Did you draft Sophmores? Where were they if not in the minors? I know they were on that plane from the tv show that disappeared for two years.
Yelich was a shadow of that he is now? All the tools were there, the drive was there, the numbers were always looking up; it was only a matter of time. Perhaps he has outplayed some expectations, but he was young and constantly improving in all facets of the game. It isnt a shock to see him post MVP caliber numbers.
Yelich Trade looks solid to me. Starting 2B and CF of now and future and a back end rotation piece which has exceeded expectations so not sure anyone would complain about that.
Stanton trade was fair. Got rid of that atrocious contract and got back Jose Devers who is a young and looks
Like he’ll be an everyday SS in MLB by the time he is 21/22. Guzman throws 100 MPH and could be a nice bullpen piece, maybe even setup type pitcher.
Probably no supertars (Isan Diaz has a shot to be) but some solid players. Brinson and Sierra looking like the only busts.
He traded Stanton and has done nothing else.
What has Jeter done with the financial savings and/or prospects from that deal? Couldn’t you write that off as a housewarming gift? I’ll give him credit for Caleb Smith, but then trading away Zac Gallen looks silly so far. Good luck Chisolm.
Umm what about the Yelich trade?
and Ozuna
Too early to tell on Yelich. Yamamoto and Isan Diaz are still getting their feet wet. Brinson still has one last shot to show something. And we still have Monte Harrison to debut.
Too early to tell?! Keep dreaming.
I’m ok with the Zac for Chisholm trade. The biggest mistake was the Yelich trade. There was no need to financially and, altough i’m a fan of diaz, harrison and Yamamoto, the main piece pieces brought back has been a major bust. .
Yelich had topped out at 21 HR with the Marlins. No way anyone foresaw his MVP future.
@ Mo4ever, I agree. But he was still an exceptional player on a below market value contract for 4 more years, at the time of the trade.
I get that they wanted to accelerate the rebuild but they absolutely had to NAIL that trade and so far its not looking good. Hopefully, Diaz, Harrison and Yamamoto continue to develop and become part of the core of the system moving forward.
I agree. I think people (including Jeff Todd here) need to separate the Loria years from the Jeter years as hard as that is to do. You also need to consider that trading Stanton, Yelich, Ozuna, and Realmuto is basically a full rebuild. Kyle Glazer at Baseball America had a good article about how even most successful full rebuilds take at least 5 years. It is just going to take time, but at least they do it right now.
All Jeter cares about is dollars. The marlins are his piggy bank. Pretty sad that a HOF player would do this shaming to Major League Baseball.
Keep believing what E!SPN and FOX told you.
KE!ep saying that to everyone.
If Jeter only cared about money, he wouldn’t be a team owner. He can probably make $5M a year alone conducting speeches and sleep in on most days.
Exactly. These guys aren’t even Marlins fans or know anything about the situation. They’re just regurgitating what they heard on E!SPN and FOX and the other NY and Boston based media blowhards, who are the same guys that try to sell the world that the universe rotates around Boston and NY.
I will enjoy seeing the Marlins next run, and seeing the same boneheads talking about how the Marlins will trade everything because “they always do” (only done once in 1998 because the 2003 champs were blown up after a disappointing 2005). And we’ll hear their media sources mispronounce and give wrong information about every player on that winning Marlins roster while being able to name the bathroom attendants for the Red Sox, Yankees and Mets.
The progress that he notes seems questionable to me. While there appears to be some competent pitchers in the system, only one is viewed as a top fifty talent, and his stock has been falling, not rising (Sixto Sanchez). None of them shows “ace” potential. As far as position players go, not a single one has shown anything close to star potential. Every team in the division (if not the entire NL) has multiple players that stand far ahead of any Marlin.
@sandman12
How has Sanchez’ stock dropped? He had a nice 2019 w/ a sub 3 ERA in over 100 IP at his highest level thus far.
Look, I’m a Braves fan and this is gonna seem bias…. but honestly he can’t say they have made “a lot of progress” since taking over. In fact, since 2016 they have gotten significantly worse each and every year (and they were bad in 2016). They traded away 2 MVP’s and pretty much got nothing in return for them, and traded away Ozuna who they got a ok return for him, but not stellar by any means. Let’s not forget they traded away arguably the best catcher in baseball away for a marginal return. When you trade that sort of talent (plus some), there is no reason you can’t completely flip your farm system from one of the worse to at least 10 ten in all of baseball. Truth be told, their farm is still weak, it doesn’t appear they are drafting amazing, and they really don’t have talent at the MLB lvl to trade away to rebuild either. The prospect that do come up aren’t even performing well enough to give you some excitement which is because they didn’t perform well in the minors to justify a call up to begin with.
Attendance is down in a market that doesn’t draw a great attendance to begin with…. revenue is down…. if I’m a marlins fan, I’m extremely concerned. This rebuild isn’t a 2-4 year plan… it’s looking like a 10 year plan at best
On a bright side, I think some of their mlb pitching is legit. Time will give us a better idea if it really is or not, but that’s the only area I would be slightly excited about.
Maybe it’s time for the marlins to consider moving or do that “duel city thing” the rays threw out… Louisiana has some great baseball, might be a state worth considering (they already have a minor league presence there). I know they have that newish stadium in Miami but that team needs a spark somehow (even though I as a Braves fan enjoy there overwhelming lack of success).
Maybe play half the games in the Dominican?
Marlins have some very solid young pitching in the majors and in their system. They may not be top 100 prospects, but they are solid and young. They have some top position players in JJ Bleday, Jesus Sanchez and Jazz Chisholm coming up. They have some very young international players in their system… Victor Victor Mesa, Lewin Diaz, and Jose Devers (Rafael’s cousin).
The Marlins will be a very good team very soon.
Louisiana, seriously? I’m a NoLa native and still think that’s a horrendous idea. You mean the same Zephyr/Baby Cakes team that’s relocating to KS in 2020? LOL. Yeah, they can’t keep a AAA team – let’s give them a failed MLB team.
They’re going to Kansas?
Where exactly?
Never mind, I looked it up.
Internet magic!
RunDMC. It’s more of a brainstorming than it is a legit suggestion. Y’all nolaian straight love your sports, so I figured it wouldn’t be a terrible idea. Obviously they can use a ridiculous names like baby cakes lol
And for everyone else, they are moving into a new $73MM facility in Wichita, KS. Most likely they are not keeping the name: Baby Cakes, but they still will be the affiliate of Miami Marlins. Very interesting as they won’t be too far from baseball heaven in Omaha, as well as the baseball powerhouse that is Wichita State Univ.
Imagine getting the call from the Kansas plains to South Beach. Not sure if there’s more contrast in this great country.
They traded away 2 MVP’s and pretty much got nothing in return for them
———————————————————–
You can’t say either. Cabrera & Pujols are both multi-time MVPs, and you’d have to eat 95% of their salary to move them. In Stanton’s case, Jeter got salary relief, which is a lot more than nothing.
Stanton,Yelich, Ozuna, Realmuto out…
Starling Castro ? in…
Lol should’ve kept that core and added a top SP. They’d have won the WS
Thanks for your input, Nostraudamus.
Yeah. That Realmuto trade looks pretty bad with what the catching market is now. Even after giving up a year of his contract I would have bet the Marlins would have gotten more for him this offseason. So many teams need a catcher and their isn’t enough to go around. Even Zunino got 4 and a half mill. When a guy like darnaud gets flat out realeased by 2 teams in the same season and then 3 months later gets a $16 million contract it is definitely a catchers market.
The Stanton one is misleading though. They came out way ahead in that trade already, and Stanton hasn’t even came near to the back end of that deal.
Yeah. The Stanton trade made sense but it was the only one. They should have made the Yanks take Chen in that deal too. They wanted Stanton so bad that they probably still would have bit and it would save the Marlins $22 million next year.
You forget the Marlins tried to trade Stanton to two different organization BEFORE the Yankees but Stanton cancelled those plans. Yankees were never going to take back Stantons contract AND Chen’s who had, at the time, negative value and now even worse.
great points. if it wasnt for that new stadium id say the marlins were prime candidates to end up relocating to orlando. they are actively looking for a team and at this point all the signs are pointing to the rays moving there.
Orlando is a service industry town. People there dont make enough to go to a baseball game. The only people that could afford to go to a game are the tourists. They’d support the visiting team.
I live in Orlando. There are plenty of wealthy people here dont let that fool u. The magic founder wants a baseball franchise down here.
@bravesfan You clearly have zero clue as to what the Marlins are actually doing. Your consistent opinions on the Fish only validate that sentiment.
Every site has the Marlins Farm system at the very least rated top 10. Idk where you’re getting your information.
Not to mention the fact they had one of the best draft hauls this year.
By 2021 this team should be hovering around .500 if not better. By 2022 the entire NL East should have all 4 teams contending for the postseason, let alone division title..
Mjm117 yea you sound completely insane, so I’m gonna pretend your ridiculous uneducated comment never happened
Btw… there are more than 4 NL East teams. I understand the confusion, as we generally like to not associate the marlins within that group
It’s the Marlins, the plan is piddle around and do nothing.
Yeah, 1997 and 2003 clearly is a franchise that does nothing. If a team with 2 championships in 27 seasons is doing nothing, then what is a team that only has 3 championships in 148 years?
team reminds me a lot of the 2000 team. I see a glimmer of hope in this bunch of prospects. the real question is will they keep anyone who actually plans out and allow the fan base to have consistency.
Happy we got Yelich out of that deal.
Marlins will do little. Y mlb let them buy the team is beyond belief.
Michael Wacha would be a solid player for the Fish. He still has gas in the tank, is young enough to correct errors, and has legit experience. Wacha being in the locker room may help some of the others learn what a winner looks like.
Jeter’s piss poor performance as an executive is why he shouldn’t be a Unanimous HOFer. I would have let it go if he got 100% (even as a Red Sox fan) until he started nuking the Marlins. There are HOF executives (Larry/Lee MacPhail, Pat Gillick, Cum Posey, eventually George Steinbrenner, eventually Theo, etc), but Jeter is not one of them.
The voting has nothing to do with how he is as an executive, only his performance as a player.
Many great players have been awful owners/gms. Should we strip MJ of his goat status for his awful job as an owner too?
Absolutely. Also MJ was in before he was a terrible exec. I’m calling on all BWAA vote holders from Florida to leave him off of their ballots since he wrecked the Marlins until 2030. He’ll be first ballot anyway.
And the voting has to do with his contribution to the game of baseball. A 3,000 hit SS? Excellent. Here’s your plaque. The worst executive in baseball in my lifetime (est. 1993)? There goes your chance at a Unanimous selection.
I dont agree with that. He should not be penalized for his job after baseball. I see where you are coming from though. He has not done a good job.
To each their own. It’s only about the Unanimous thing, he’s certainly first-ballot worthy. I am still ticked a f***ing reliever was the first (Sox fan or not).
Rivera was special to watch. Im younger so i only saw him toward the back end of his career which is unfortunate.
Special, yes. The best ever at his position (so far), yes. A mother f***ing reliever when Ruth, Bonds, Griffey, Cy Young, etc etc weren’t/won’t be unanimous that I’d be a thousand times more likely to build a team around weren’t unanimous just rubs me the wrong way.
Oh who cares? Rivera deserved it and we can’t retroactively fix the past. It’s this kind of silliness (“we can’t elect player X unanimously because player Y wasn’t elected unanimously”) that made it take so long for any player to get in unanimously at all. Just be glad that’s finally over.
I agree 100%. Rivera was a joke. They woundt even let Lee Smith in and have River unanimous. A NY reliever! Sums up biased joke baseball
It doesn’t bother me that Rivera was unanimous but it does bother me that guys like Ruth, Cy Young and Hank Aaron weren’t.
I find it laughable and very telling that the only people that are bashing the Marlins rebuild efforts are people who are not Marlins fans and do not live in South Florida to know the situation, while the vast majority of Marlins fans, and nearly every Marlins fan that is knowledgeable in baseball, love the rebuild and the pieces that we are adding and seeing.
To all of you that don’t know the situation, there is a saying that goes like this: “It’s better to stay silent about something that you don’t know about and let people think you’re stupid, then it is to speak up about something you don’t know about and leave no doubt that you’re stupid.”
Cy Young wasn’t even first ballot.
Of course, his first ballot was THE FIRST ballot, when every player ever was eligible. Young has the most wins ever, but he’s not as good a pitcher as Christy Mathewson or Walter Johnson, who did get in on that first ballot.
Rivera’s unanimity was probably helped by the BBWAA tightening who could vote; the kind who, in 1936, were probably thinking “Babe Ruth strikes out too much! Baseball isn’t about home runs, it’s about average and small ball!” As well as the fact that Rivera is the one player who is the unanimous pick as “best at his position ever”.
But most of all, Rivera’s unanimous selection was helped by the fact that one writer (forget his name) just couldn’t stomach the idea that someone with only 1200 IP could be a HOFer, no matter how good those innings were… but also didn’t want to be the jerk to keep Rivera from getting in unanimously, so just DIDN’T VOTE. Ballots not returned don’t count, so Rivera was able to get in unanimously.
Helps that he was a NY Yankee too. Had he been on about 25 other franchises, he would not have been a unanimous selection.
@casor_greeny
They didn’t let Smith in BECAUSE of Rivera. Smith debuted at 42.3%, which is the best debut by ANY PLAYER EVER who didn’t end up getting elected by the writers. But Rivera kept being dominant, and both he and Hoffman utterly DESTROYED Smith’s record for career saves. And Smith’s % plummeted because he no longer had “most career saves” to differentiate him from guys like John Franco.(over 400 saves, lower ERA in about the same number of innings pitched).
Funnily enough, John Franco was ALSO a “NY reliever”, but HE only got 4.6% when he was on the ballot.
Yeah, exposure does not hurt. Being on the Yankees WHEN HE WAS (should be italicized, I don’t know how to do that) meant he was in the World Series how many times? And in the playoffs how many more times? 1980s Yankees Mo might not have gotten in unanimously either.
Would still have gotten high 90%, though. The guy still dominated his position.
Who Posey?! Could you repeat that please? Or am I reading it wrong?
@FattKemp
Player……coach……GM
One has nothing to do with the other. By your logic Ted Williams, one of the greatest hitters ever, shouldn’t be in the HOF or not first ballot because he was a horrible manager with the Senators w/ a .429 winning % in his 4 seasons. Jeter is going into the HOF 1st ballot because of what he did as a player. The HOF knows the difference.
He wasn’t terrible with the Senators if you know anything about baseball history. He had no pitching staff (not that he was particularly adept at handling one but if you want to split hairs he wasn’t a great fielder, either). He made Frank Howard an MVP Candidate, Mike Epstein an All Star, etc. and there were definitely worse managers than Ted. The point is that Jeter is ranked dead last when examining his implosion of the Marlins.
Baseball exec activities affect HOF status? Who knew?
You’re flat out wrong here. You get on the HOF ballot as either a player, coach or executive. Jeter is on for being a player and that’s all he should be evaluated for when voting.
If/when Terry Francona gets on the ballot as a coach, it will have NOTHING to do with his 8-10 year, below average playing career (after being a “can’t miss” prospect). These ballots are separated for a reason and that’s all voters should evaluate when making their decision.
The HOF had several opportunities to elect Joe Torre as a player [he’s actually got a pretty good case as a HOF player] after he’d shown success as a Yankees manager, but wasn’t elected until he debuted as a manager.
“I should say, make an attempt to get him.”
I imagine this is the attempt he’ll be making…
“We should get Rendon. *calls agent* Hey, how much is Rendon?…. Whoa. Ok, talk to you later. *hangs up and goes to lunch.
Jeter doesn’t know what he’s doing
This whole “first ballot” stuff is just horse hockey. Mariano’s a Hall of Famer; hard stop. He redefined the position, even more than Fingers, Eck, et all did before him. And ya, Jeter as a player unquestionably belongs.
As an executive? TBD. Frankly doesn’t look impressive. The Fish are better than they were 2 years ago, but only incrementally so, especially given what they’ve traded away. Most telling, their actions in the draft and International market have been less than compelling.
The division is tough; there’s some bright folks in Atlanta and DC, and Philly and NY may not have brains, but they have lots and lots of money, enough to outrun their mistakes. No one doubts its a HUGE challenge for the Marlins to succeed; but its legitimate to ask if Jeter and company are up to it.
The problem is there’s already two morons of the seven public ballots that only voted Jeter so he “doesn’t have to share the stage”. Like what? Why is Jeter up on such a high pedestal. HOF, yes. Some kind of inner circle HOFer? Not a chance.
The Michael Jordan school of ownership/team executive.
Just as with the previous ownership, the priority here is maximizing profits. They followed the money to Miami where they continue to be misguided in targeting the Spanish-speaking audience, which continues to not support the team. Ownership should have targeted Broward/Palm Beach which has a better fan base and had better stadium access. They have further alienated the Southeast Florida market…
Prime example of the shoes on the other foot. Jeter won’t be as free with money as he wanted owner to be when he played
Sadly, The most exciting thing for this team in 2020, will be Jeter getting into the HOF
I feel that Jeter has a good incentive but coming out short. He should take notes from the Tampa organization or Los Angeles.
Undercapitalized, dead franchise.
Marlins have no plan to contend, under or over 90 loses in 2020 with no attendance. Marlins are the textbook reason there should be no revenue sharing.
Nailed it! There’s no point in them even playing ball anymore. There’s no plan in sight! They’re just going through the motions. They’re absolutely not doing the same as the Braves or Astros, more recently. At least they had a plan at least. Not the Marlins.
You sounds like a fan of Cubs, Yanks, Red Sox or Dodgers and thus, very likely, to have an opinion that carries zero value.
Good…good..so much hatred towards the Marlins…Let it flow through you…
Its gonna be even more sweet when they very soon begin contend for the postseason.
Mjm117 = The Emperor
“Soon you will feel the full power of the Marlins”
Who? They have at most 5 prospects. Translated to what happens to prospects, 2 won’t work out, 1 will get hurt until he’s no longer a prospect, 1 will get traded to the next Reds/Padres/whoever contender, and 1 is a wild card spin of the roulette wheel of the previous 3 options. They get lucky and 2 of them work out for a couple years, they win 70 games? Good job Derek. They should be burning him in effigy in Miami.
I bet you are fun at parties. Geesh, Seasame Street can still be seen in re-runs. Mr Hooper will live forever in your mind if you let him.
ngl, he’s been…. alright
Like he could’ve got more on Yelich, but the Stanton and Realmuto return actually look pretty promising. They absolutely had to rebuild and their farm system looks really nice.
The Marlins are doing the right thing in this rebuild. All of you who aren’t even Marlins fans to know the situation are just speaking from ignorance to the situation. The Marlins needed to blow the team up. They were not going to win with the team unless they found a way to resurrect Jose Fernandez and then add another frontline SP. The very second Fernandez died, the Marlins hope for building a championship with that roster died with him because they had zero pitching after that. To add the needed amount of pitching would have brought the Marlins to a payroll of over $200 million…and maybe trading one of the bats for a pitcher anyway…and that still wouldn’t guaranteed anything.
The Jeter organization is so cheap that when they hold a nickel, the buffalo jumps.
One comparable organization is the Pohlad (Mr. CHEAP) owned Minnesota Twins.
Financial success owning a MLB team is all about being “close?.
Because to truly compete and win ends up being way too expensive.
I find it funny that so many people keep bashing the Marlins, but ignore something about their championships:
1 – They are tied for the most championships by expansion teams (2 with the Royals, Blue Jays and Mets) in far less years than the teams they’re tied with.
2 – They are tied for being the 3rd youngest team in MLB, but have more championships than 10 other franchises – 8 that have been around longer than them.
3 – They are tied for total championships with 5 other franchises – 2 of which have been around for over 100 years (Phillies and Indians), 2 others over 40 (Royals and Blue Jays), and one more over 50 (Mets).
4 – They are 1 championship away from tying 5 franchises with 3 championships (Orioles, White Sox, Braves, Twins, and Cubs) – all of which are over 100 years old. And getting that 3rd championship would put them tied for 10th in most championships.
Wow, if this team gets bashed on all the time, I wonder why the other teams don’t get bashed too?
It’s not about the number of championships overall. It’s about the eras of ownerships groups and fandamonium or lackthereof. It’s a question of “what have you done for me lately?” Teams can win the WS one year and be an embarrassment the next (See: Red Sox 2018 vs 2019, etc.) and those teams get bashed on for bad overpaid contracts hamstringing team finances, or they get bashed on for poor management, etc. It’s all the same. I don’t agree with your defensiveness of your club, but I understand you want to see the best in them. You’re referencing players that are long retired and were recruited and paid by people no longer operating the Marlins or perhaps even in baseball, maybe even no longer alive… Hence the generations and eras matter more than the total championships or lackthereof…
I’m sorry, but the total number of championships do matter. If the Marlins end up becoming the expansion team with the most championships; the team with the most championships in the current NL East; top 10 total championships all time, that’s a big deal when they are tied for being the 3rd youngest franchise, when they are being more successful than franchises that are over 100 years old.
And you talk about eras? Okay, the Loria Era in Miami is over. People need to stop attributing what he did to this new ownership. Sherman, Jeter, Michael Jordan, and the rest of the ownership have nothing to do with Loria and have made it clear that they are not them. They are cleaning the mess he left and building their own era. I for one, like that they’re doing this. If your argument is about eras, then why are you holding on to a past era to bash the Marlins? If you want to hold onto that past, then you need to acknowledge the championships too. If you want the championships out because they are in the past, then you don’t hold Jeter and Co. responsible for Loria’s Era, which is also in the past. Or are you just interested in bashing the Marlins, even if it means being contradictory about what you want to pick from the past as relevant?