There’s been a seismic shift in Marlins leadership, as Derek Jeter announced today that he is leaving the organization and will no longer serve as an executive or a shareholder with the club. Jeter’s statement reads as follows:
“Today I am announcing that the Miami Marlins and I are officially ending our relationship and I will no longer serve as CEO nor as a shareholder in the Club. We had a vision five years ago to turn the Marlins franchise around, and as CEO, I have been proud to put my name and reputation on the line to make our plan a reality. Through hard work, trust and accountability, we transformed every aspect of the franchise, reshaping the workforce, and developing a long-term strategic plan for success.
That said, the vision for the future of the franchise is different than the one I signed up to lead. Now is the right time for me to step aside as a new season begins.
My family and I would like to thank our incredible staff, Marlins fans, Marlins players and the greater Miami community for welcoming us with open arms and making us feel at home. The organization is stronger today than it was five years ago, and I am thankful and grateful to have been a part of this team.”
Marlins chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman issued his own statement on the severing of the relationship:
“The Miami Marlins and Derek Jeter announced today that they have agreed to officially end their relationship. The Marlins thank Derek for his many contributions and wish him luck in his future endeavors.
We have a deep bench of talent that will oversee both the business and baseball decisions while we work to identify a new CEO to lead our franchise. The ownership group is committed to keep investing in the future of the franchise — and we are determined to build a team that will return to the postseason and excite Marlins fans and the local community.”
Sherman and Jeter partnered as prospective buyers for the Marlins back in 2017 and eventually outbid multiple other groups to purchase the franchise from now-former owner Jeffrey Loria at a reported price of $1.2 billion. The bulk of that investment came from Sherman, though Jeter was said to have invested $25MM into the organization himself. Jeter later disputed that number, calling his stake a fair bit larger. Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci reported in February of 2018 that it was closer to $38MM in total.
The early stages of the Jeter and Sherman regime were historic for the Marlins, as the front office (then headed up by president of baseball operations Mike Hill) embarked on a dramatic reshaping of the roster and farm system that saw the Marlins’ former core of stars shipped out of town. While the return for eventual NL MVP Christian Yelich has been widely panned, that sell-off also saw the Marlins acquire Sandy Alcantara and Zac Gallen (among others) for Marcell Ozuna. Gallen was later traded to the D-backs for current second baseman Jazz Chisholm. The Giancarlo Stanton/Yankees trade also occurred that same winter, and a year later the Marlins traded J.T. Realmuto to the Phillies in a deal headlined by Sixto Sanchez.
The Marlins parted ways with Hill following the 2020 season, and Jeter played a significant role in bringing Kim Ng aboard as the sport’s first ever female general manager. The team’s first full offseason under Ng was relatively quiet, but she and the Marlins have been aggressive thus far in the 2021-22 offseason, signing Avisail Garcia (four years, $53MM), acquiring both Jacob Stallings and Joey Wendle, and signing both Alcantara (five years, $56MM) and shortstop/clubhouse leader Miguel Rojas (two years, $10MM) to contract extensions.
Even with that sequence of transactions, however, the Marlins are only projected to carry a $68.9MM payroll, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. They’re still expected to pursue an additional bat when the offseason lockout and accompanying transaction freeze are lifted, but it’s safe to say the Fish will remain near the bottom of the league in terms of overall payroll. It’s not clear whether Jeter’s departure is at all tied to the team’s payroll expectations moving forward, but it seems clear that a rift of some degree formed between Jeter and Sherman.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Jeter’s contract was set to expire later this year but was not immediately on the cusp of ending. Presumably, any potential talks about a new contract would’ve included discussions about the long-term vision for the organization, and it seems (based on Jeter’s own words) that he and Sherman no longer aligned.
Whether the reasons for Jeter’s departure eventually become clear or not, he’ll leave a lasting stamp on the organization. The handling of some early personnel changes (e.g. the Marlins’ dismissal of advisors Jeff Conine, Andre Dawson and Jack McKeon) was not without controversy, and the Marlins drew plenty of criticism after the Sherman/Jeter group immediately slashed payroll with the trades of Yelich, Stanton, Ozuna and Dee Gordon.
Five years later, however, it’s hard to argue that the Marlins aren’t in a better position. The position-player core of this roster isn’t as strong, but the Marlins now boast one of MLB’s best farm systems and perhaps the deepest collection of pitching any team has to offer. The long-term payroll has more flexibility — whether or not it’s used is another question — and the Marlins are more generally seen as a team on the rise. That surely isn’t due to Jeter alone, but beyond his hiring of Ng, Jeter also played a large role in bringing VP of scouting/player development Gary Denbo and assistant general manager Dan Greenlee over from the Yankees. Greenlee has helped to build out an analytics department that is lacking, and while Denbo has at times been a source of controversy himself, the improved farm system is a testament to his own work.
Time will tell whether additional departures are imminent, and it’s not clear what might be next for Jeter. The Hall of Famer made no indication that he plans to step away from baseball entirely, though, so it’s certainly plausible he’ll eventually take on a new challenge with another club.
Craig Mish of SportsGrid first reported the news shortly before Jeter issued his statement (Twitter link).
Yankees front office?
The guy was an epic failure PR-wise and the job he did in gutting the franchise. Why would the Yankees front office give him anything more than the role of human mascot?
Marlins are set up head and shoulders better for the future because of what Jeter did. Yankees would gladly give them Stanton back.
Worst thing Jeter did was trade his core players for players that didn’t work out
Which core players did he trade for players that worked out worse than who he traded away? I’ll give you Christian Yelich. Who else?
fisher40: Trading Ozuna to the Cardinals was a great “win” trade. They got rid of Stanton’s overpriced contract, granted the return wasn’t the greatest. After those 2 leaving, EVERYONE “knew” that Yelich wasn’t going to re-sign at a club friendly deal. So they got quantity over quality for him.
I do agree he probably didn’t get enough for Yelich (or Realmuto) but trading Yelich was the right thing to do. They were never going to pay to keep h and if they did it would be a bad idea. If the Brewers could dump one contract on their team it would be Yelich. If the Yankees could dump one it would be Stanton. If the Braves could dump one it would be Ozuna. That shows you right there that trading those guys was smarter than paying for any of them. Realmuto may be a different story but I think he was refusing to sign an extension and wanted out of Miami so they had to trade him. I heard rumors that the Braves were considering offering Riley in a deal for Realmuto but the Marlins we’re trying to shoot for the moon and kept asking for Albies or Acuna. That was never going to happen but they should have pushed hard for Riley instead. Even if it was straight up Realmuto for Riley that would have been much better than what the Marlins got from Philly.
I don’t know how much credit should and to go to whom.
I think the Dee Gordon, Christian Yelich and Justin Bour were bad trades and JT Realmuto will soon be a bad trade. Marcell Ozuna was a great trade while unloading Giancarlo Stanton even though they pay him $30M 2026-2028 was a miracle.
Marlins were going to lose Realmuto anyway so they win that trade as long as Sixto does more for the Marlins than that draft pick they would have gotten from QO’ing Realmuto would have done.
The Yelich trade worked out gloriously for Milwaukee. The problem was that extension they gave him.
The extension seemed fine at the time too. Yelich would’ve never gotten that extension from Miami.
David Stearns is a great GM and he obviously won that deal by a landslide. Diaz, Harrison and Brinson were all highly regarded prospects at the time though.
Jeter’s leaving the Marlins at a time where the future honestly looks pretty bright. They’ve developed a ton of pitchers and the farm is pretty strong. This must be a real conflict w the ownership group.
Gordon trade is a wash. He immediately fell off the cliff when he became a Mariner and now he’s a AAA journeyman while the pieces they got back haven’t done anything noteworthy. Yelich trade was a net loss for the Marlins since he racked up two MVP caliber seasons with the Brewers, but now his power has suddenly vanished so he’s just an average player. I’d say the Realmuto trade worked out for both sides because Sixto Sanchez is a pretty good young pitcher when healthy. They’re probably glad they are out from Stanton’s contract, and they’re glad that they don’t have to deal with the negative PR around Marcell Ozuna’s domestic violence issues. They have a deep pitching staff, a solid farm system, and a bunch of young talent on the verge of breaking out. They were barely a .500 team in the 2010s even with all of those all-stars playing at peak level, and had no playoff appearances to show for it. The current version of the team managed to sneak into the playoffs during that shortened 2020 season and they advanced to the second round. I give kudos to Jeter and Co. for helping break that playoff drought even though it wasn’t under normal circumstances.
Yelich trade was an A++ for Milwaukee. It’s the extension they gave him that is the problem.
Phillies got nothing out of the Realmuto trade. He still would have signed there if they hadn’t traded for him first, guaranteed.
Let me see, he was financially hamstrung upon arrival. The gutting was the only way to keep the team in South Florida. if there were better officers, his wouldn’t have been taken. Considering the pitching depth the club has, they could be in car worse shape. I try to look as objectively a I can and think he did a remarkable job unloading the Stanton deal. Do you think Bloom would have done as well on Betts if the Dodgers knew Boston couldn’t afford to keep him? The Sox wanted his contract gone but they would have survived without a deal. Florida then had to rid itself of their entire outfield.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. The Marlins are in a much better situation now versus before Jeter’s arrival.
That may be but not sure because of DJ. The stories (not confirmed or more than rumors to be fair) of how he “ran” the franchise are entering into “where there’s smoke” territory. He apparently almost literally never showed up and had zero interest in the job. Nice to have him as a figurehead at first but absolutely no need now.
And he played a part in removing that ridiculous statue that was in the outfield stands.
What rumors? I cannot find any. This is a rumors site and they have never ran an article that said anything close to that about Jeter. None in the Herald. None in FishStripes. None in the NY Post, Fansided, Bleacher Report, YardBarker, SB Nation, Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, The Athletic, Sports Illustrated, or ESPN. I don’t follow or subscribe to 100% of all baseball blogs, so where exactly are those “rumors” you claim to have read?
Google is your friend.
No links but Google is your friend? Interesting. I will take it you could not find those rumors either.
Prove him wrong. Innocent until proven guilty.
Don’t be lazy.
I haven’t heard those rumors but they do make sense on the surface. Jeter wasn’t paying the bills. Sherman was. Jeter probably isn’t making player decisions. I think that’s what he hired Kim Ng for. It kind of seems like Jeter’s main job was to be a figure head and hire someone like Ng to do the other work. I’m not sure what he would really be doing with her there now other than represent the Marlins in the media. I’m open to suggestions though because I never heard the rumors.
Right? In an ideal situation, the CEO is never in the spotlight. Their job is to handle business behind the scenes and occasionally make an appearance. The main thing is that because he’s Derek Freaking Jeter, the spotlight finds him no matter what he does.
Wow, you guys don’t really have any vision, do you?
Mets President of Baseball., Derek Jeter.
Wouldn’t Steve love that!
I’m surprised Jeter left. I though he would stick around at least until the team was finished being rebuilt and ready to contend for a long time. It looks like trading Yelich, Stanton and Ozuna were all good ideas. None of those guys look like they are worth even close to what they are getting paid now. I think they probably could have gotten more fore Realmuto because I doubt Sixto Sanchez will ever stay healthy long enough to be a truly productive starting pitcher. I’m guessing Jeter thought it was time for the Marlins to spend more money and Sherman has a different idea of how much money should be spent. They never really get a consistent fan base in Miami so spending for big long term contracts probably shouldn’t be in their plans. I am surprised how few people in Miami go to baseball games. It’s a sport filled with Latin players and Miami is a very Latin city. The stadium is also new so you would think there would be a ton of serious Marlins fans at games every day. It seems like they only show up during the few years the team had deep playoff runs. You can’t really sustain a team that way. They all need a base of diehard fans that love the team and support them even if they aren’t heavily favored to be in the world series every single year.
Rays have the same issue, but they also have a powerhouse team right now. You’d think that people would flock to the ballpark in droves, for if nothing else, it’s air-conditioned and they can get out of the heat for a few hours. It’s weird how major league baseball just doesn’t seem to draw in Florida.
LOL The Marlins are better off right now than the Yankees are….
I would take the marlins roster over ours any day. The stanton salary dump fixed the franchise worse mistake ever. They have a great farm system. All of this with less than half the payroll the yankees have. Sure they didn’t win a world series but we haven’t either with twice the payroll and in 3 times that time.
Yankees have nearly 4 times the payroll.
I wonder what the 14 fans that attend Marlin games think?
After the start of the Marlins offseason before the lockout I can see why Jeter wants to go. Avisail Garcia for 4 years who just looked silly in the NLDS against the Braves? Marlins will probably finish at near the bottom of the division with the Nationals and Mets if there is a season.
Holy crap!! Didn’t see this coming. Hal, get on the phone and hire Jeter now.
Jeter, buy the Yankees, now!
@Yankee Clipper- My thoughts exactly!
Great players don’t necessarily make great executives. I can’t name one off hand.
@worthington, I can name many but Jeter ain’t one of them. It looks like he has the Marlins pointed in the right direction.
Nolan Ryan, Joe Torre, Hank Aaron and George Brett did pretty well in their FO’s
Dave Stewart. Oh, wait…
Rachel Balkov….. too soon?
it makes sense for a woman to manage the tampa tampons doesnt it?
Jerry West in the NBA? Ozzie Newsome in the NFL?
In the NHL, Gretzky wasn’t the great one, and Saint Patrick was out of miracles.
Yzerman seems to be doing pretty well…Jagr acquired himself and moved his team up in relegation :).
At this point , maybe he can just go ahead and replace either Tony Clark or Rob Manfred to get a deal a done lol
Sure. Except Manfried is a front and a shill for the 30 wealthy owners.
And they’re amongst the worst people on the world.
Pretty foolish comment given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That is real evil!
A person can still be a terrible person even if they aren’t as evil as Putin. This isn’t a binary thing where everyone who isn’t as bad as Putin it somehow a good person.
The worst people in the world? I’ll ditch the dumb comments on Ukraine and understand that you are commenting on a site for MLB rumors vs a site for politics and morality, but come on bro! If you ran any business ever, you would negotiate exactly like these owners are. No one is starving in MLB. Players are having generational changing life success. These are just businessman and women in a capitalist society. Like the players, they are negotiating in their best interest. Just as you would. Silly, silly comment.
Only the top players either through becoming FA’s or contract extensions are making generational wealth. Many mid-range down to the 25th player have been getting squeezed out for years.
True. Like in any industry, you have to be elite to earn elite money. Do you think half a million a year for the worst people in a single industry is acceptable. MLB is offering $600,00, but just asking, is $500,000 ok for mediocrity in your field?
Mediocre in my field doesn’t put a person in the top 1% of the field, though. Just making an MLB roster does.
And that’s about as nice of a way to put it.
You know it’s not just 30 guys that own the teams right? Most teams have dozens if not hundreds of minority owners and shareholders. Two of the owners are even businesses.
The narrative of 30 rich dudes versus the players is ridiculous.
The players aren’t wealthy?
@Weasel 2
“And they’re amongst the worst people on the world.”
LOL on what grounds? Because they only pay their employees billions of dollars and 45%+ of total league revenue? Yeah they’re real tyrants.
38% of league revenue. The lowest in any major sport in the US by 10%. They don’t qualify among the worst people in the world, but certainly do qualify as bad people since they are trying to take a greater share away from the players. Players who ARE the product.
You call him Manfried, I call him Manfart, because everything out of his mouth smells like, well you understand me. Lets just say he can clear a room, but hold on to your wallet when you leave, jewelry & stock options as well. Can you guess I never cared for the guy?
Did he leave them a gift basket?
Signed baseball
30 day supply of Valtrex, with three refills
Well played.
@HalosHeavenJJ- No that gift basket was just for chics on the road.Nothing wrong with just candy once in a while.
the news report of him giving the same girl a gift basket twice was priceless.
Intrigue.
Remember, he was always a minority owner.
Is that racist? It sounds racist. LOL!!
Yeah, I’m pretty sure Jeter was like, “Alright, we are in a place to spend money and get some good FAs this year, put a competitive team in the field, & start playing for real.”
“Yeah, uh, Derek, this is the Marlins, bro, we just say that stuff, we don’t actually mean it.”
“Wait, you mean you guys don’t actually want to….win games and stuff…in baseball?”
“No, Derek, we want to make money. Have you not paid any attention to negotiations?”
“I’m out”
Clipper, after reading what Jeter said, I think you have it right.
Clipper, one thing Yankee fans know is Jeter is Uber competitive, even by professional athlete standards, and hates losing. You don’t get that from his public persona when he seems affable but guarded. In the club house, he had a different reputation. After the 2001 World Series game 7 loss, he stormed off the field and was tearing apart the club house. That’s after winning three straight titles. There was no loss of edge or drive from the guy. We saw that in his final negotiations with Cashman as he was approaching 40. He wanted every penny, he wanted respect, he knew the Yankees were making money off him beyond the field. He didn’t like what he was hearing, so he went and to negotiated directly with Hal. He got a better deal, and the Yankees got a quite profitable farewell tour.
When he went to the Marlins, I was sure it wasn’t going to end well. He wants to win and he was raised by the Yankees. He’s the winningest player in MLB history, and what I mean by that is his teams had the highest winning percentage of any player ever when he was on the field. That’s obviously not just about him, but that’s what he’s used to. As I noted below, playing second fiddle to Sherman and not being able to control spending meant this ending was pre-scripted. Sherman got what he needed from Jeter (his name) coupled with Sherman’s money to win the bid for the Marlins, and now he’s paid him off to move on so that all future profits are his.
L99: Very well written and your second paragraph particularly resonates with me. His ties with the Marlins always seemed juxtaposed to his need to win, but I think you’re right – he’s so hyper-competitive that he believed under the right circumstances he could grow a winning organization and prove his worth as an owner/CEO. Your narrative is just spot-on, man. Good stuff.
Good story!!! You can write a book.
Yankee Clipper: In another year or so, I’d agree with you. At this point (imo) the Marlins are on a good trajectory but they’re not ready to invest “big” money YET. They’ve got a very good farm system, that’s STARTING to pay dividends. Keep building (growing) a competitive team and then bring in the hired guns (er I mean free agents) in ’23 or ’24. This is the same plan that the Royals seem to be doing.
Yeah, that’s fair enough. It may simply be that he knows what the plan moving forward is, which is to continue on this same path. He doesn’t see the point in waiting around to endure the inevitable.
But, what you posit makes sense nonetheless.
Can’t be any good news coming out of this….
My thought exactly. There’s a LOT that’s gonna come out about his tenure in Miami, is my guess. And I’m not sure his pristine reputation is gonna survive it.
Sounds like he’s about to join another team’s ownership group and/or executive leadership, so it’s probably good news for someone.
Heyman has the scoop: he’s un-retiring, and returning to the Yankees as player-coach. More to come…
New Yankees 3rd base coach. Or is he there new shortstop!
For what I can read from this, he wanted to invest money on getting good players, the other owners did not…
No, he wanted the really wealthy majority owners to invest more of their money into new players.
There could be truth in this.
He brought in Kim Ng. I wonder if she simply takes over his duties and is named PoBO.
Reading between the lines, he disagrees with the decisions being made by ownership, as they’re the only ones that outrank him, and he doesn’t want his name attached to that model. He thanked everyone but the ownership.
They may call this mutual, but it seems to me this isn’t breaking on friendly terms.
Perhaps not, but this is the way successful people end business relationships. You don’t want to seem bitter and you don’t want to be seen as a bridge-burner. No one wins from an ugly divorce.
Cordell and Cordell disagree.
Lmao
It’s true. These statements are the rich business owner version of a Jerry Springer slap fight.
It may be additionally be that he’s uncomfortable being on a different side of the CBA negotiations. It can’t be easy representing the owners interest after such an incredible career as a HOF player. It would be problematic for me being on the other side. Come to think of it, it was problematic trying to be better than a junior college player!
New Yankees 3rd base coach. Or is he their new shortstop!
He’s going to be their new manager once they get rid of Boone.
Beltran
I don’t think he could for the same reason he’s leaving the Marlins. Cashman wouldn’t give him any leeway. I would like to see Jeter over Cashman because I think he would have more influence over Hal.
“The vision for the future of the franchise is DIFFERENT than the one I signed up to lead”. Yeah, the Marlins have no plans to spend money anytime soon.
His plan was to cut payroll and turn a profit. Not sure how Spending was put into the equation. I’d assume the other owners were tired of him trading the top players on the team every chance he got. Maybe he was looking to deal his best player to the Yankees again. Or maybe he could fire everyone.
From when he was trying to buy the Marlins. Per the Herald, Jeter vowed to slash payroll in hopes of generating profit, while somehow increasing attendance at the same time.
Pretty sure the other owners were cool with Jeter trading away star players. It was openly the plan when they bought the team so…
They have had a tremendous offseason so far! Don’t write them off yet. Derek Jeter was a terrible President from day ONE!! His heart never seemed to be completely into it.
If you guys think it was bad with Jeter, let’s revisit this conversation after a couple years without him and see the ……improvement the team makes. I’m fairly certain you’ll prefer Jeter to the future Marlins, while will be like the last Marlins, while will be the antithesis to Jeter’a Marlins. Jeter was always about winning and wanted to bring that culture to Miami.
He did say he wanted to cut payroll [initially], to right the ship, rebuild, and develop a team with long-term success. That was Jeter’s goal. I’d be surprised if he was simply making a statement contrary to his nature just to sell off his team, lose, & make money which is actually par for the course for most normal owners.
This could be completely wrong, but I’ve heard Jeter make the comment that Hannah “didn’t expect him back in baseball this quickly.” I wonder if the wife wasn’t happy.
Happy wife, happy life.
Oh sure, @Clip.
Now you guys get around to telling me.
That’s what my wife tells me anyway Ducky. I’m not entirely convinced.
Well, an unhappy wife leads to, “(sigh)…damm, there goes another house.” Never really knew too much about the “happy wife” thing myself. Which – to be fair – was completely understandable.
I know, right? I always ask my wife, “How come Jeter & Brady’s wives always seem happy? I’m sure they aren’t upset at this stuff. “ I don’t think she gets it though. Guess I’ll have to try a different approach one day.
Well when your 47 like Jeter and have a 31 year old trophy wife I imagine it’s hard keeping up!
Soooo, you’re recommending a trade-in? Sounds a bit harsh but I haven’t tried it…yet.
Nah. No trade ins. I just don’t know how these guys can get involved with much younger women. Jeter and his wife is almost 16 years difference. I’m about 2 years younger than Jeter and couldn’t imagine more than a 5-6 age difference if I was ever to get out there and try again (separated about 3 years but not divorced yet). My wife is 6 years older than me btw.
Are you suggesting Derek’s bird isn’t working well enough for Hannah?
That was my bad guys, I misspelled a word… happy wife, happy wife – there we go, makes sense now.
Or: an unhappy ex-wife is I don’t give af.
So, the vision for the future of the franchise is different than the one he signed up to lead. That sounds like maybe he wanted them to compete to win more than they do. Maybe not tanking per se, but prioritizing profits over winning. If so, emblematic of one of the MLBPA’s big concerns in the CBA negotiations.
Good riddance!!! As a diehard Marlins fan myself, I can say he was a TERRIBLE front office executive!!!!
How can you tell?
1st playoff appearance in 12 years. Hired Denbo who brought the farm system from the bottom to near the top in baseball. Hired Greenlee who created a brand new analytics department that is now one of the best in baseball. The Marlins now have one of the best young pitching staffs in baseball. Hired Ng. Sponsorships locally exploded. New TV deal and stadium naming rights that have increased revenue to the point that the Marlins should be able to spend $125 million annually. What exactly did Jeter do that was terrible?
I’m sure the conspiracy theorists will be everywhere, but it COULD be he’s thinking of investing in another team.
Hopefully he’s buying the Yankees.
His $38 million investment in the Marlins bought him 4% ownership. I am sure that he got a nice return on that investment when Sherman bought him out. Even if all he got was a 4% of the team value for selling, that is a minimum of $48 million.
I agree with others- he’s not happy that the ruling ownership don’t want to spend to compete and want to continue keeping the payroll as low as possible and Jeter is gonna take his money and his vision for baseball back to the Yankees and become a major player in his true home team’s front office.
I don’t think the Marlins fans are going to miss him. He gutted the team, the front office, the fan base, and seemed to want to be the Face of the Franchise.
I agree with you completely!! He did not even have the decency to sit down with Christian Yelich and try to make him happy. Terrible CEO!!!
Christian Yelich was never going to stay. That entire core wanted out of Miami the morning after Jose Fernandez’s death. Don’t be naive.
I’m excited to see the Marlins extend all their guys now that Jeter is gone! I can’t wait for those long, expensive contracts to start rolling in…it’ll be so much more effective for the Marlins franchise.
Is this a serious comment? Yelich isn’t a player you appease after a couple good/great seasons (at that time). He’s not Trout or even Ryan Sandberg for crying out loud.
Stark:You’re 100% correct. (Christian) YELICH is not (Mike) TROUT, (Nolan) RYAN, or (Ryne) SANDBERG. He’s Christian “freaking” Yelich. Just sayin…
Gutted the fan base? What fan base? The team is in a better place than its been in the last 12 years. They had a playoff appearance in 2020. They have one of the best young pitching staffs in baseball. They have a top farm system for the first time in, well, forever.
Dang it why do I continue to root for this sorry franchise? I hate my life
Did he send a dong pic to some intern? Not to say Jeter would do such a thing as he’s a very classy and well spoken man but abruptly quitting is usually the sign of either sending nudes or saying the n word in today’s society.
OMG you don’t know much about Derek Jeter do you?
Translation = The owner didn’t want to spend the money necessary to build a winning team as promised five years ago.
My thoughts precisely.
Hopefully the Yanks pick him up somewhere. He belongs in pinstripes.
They have some of the best pitching in baseball. They need about 3 serious bats and they would be a major factor. You guys may have something here.
Prov356: My thoughts exactly…lol.
@Prov356
Maybe its because he had his five years and didn’t win. Or the owners wanted everyone to kick in to buy a hitter or two, and Jeter wasn’t able or willing to kick out any more.
I don’t rely on conjecture or speculation…aka “maybe”.
stymeedone
“…the vision for the future of the franchise is different than the one I signed up to lead.”
That’s very clear from Jeter.
Doesn’t rely on maybes…literally on a “Rumors” website
Nice try Mav. But this site reports news about baseball, not rumors regardless of the word being in the name. They will write the occasional opinion piece, but they always site their references, as in this article.
I’m fairly certain Jeter’s comments can much more reasonably be understood to align with what Prov356 said, given how Jeter publicly stated his goals and intended direction when he took office there.
I don’t know what the vision that group of owners had at the start was. I also don’t know how it has changed, if it has. The article doesn’t cover it. So I don’t find it as clear as you do. I have also not seen Jeter be a big spender as a CEO, so I can’t read it the way you do. He has given me no reason to expect him to want to spend.
4 years. This would have been season 5.
This “translation” is nothing more than conjecture and speculation. I won’t have it!
Ha. “…the vision for the future of the franchise is different than the one I signed up to lead.”
Those are Jeter’s words and my interpretation of them.
Sounds like he was hoping they would be spending big money on free agents by this point (after a few years of rebuild)?
Tim, clean up the smut advertising on your site
Any word out of Miami whether this could just be the result of a “this town ain’t big enough for both of us” clash of ownership and/or front office egos?
This could be 1 of 2 things:
1) Sherman doesn’t want to spend like Jeter intended, as has been mentioned, which is hard to tell with the lockout. They started spending, but need to do a lot more. Did Jeter want to go after the big guns (Correa, Seager, etc. level), and Sherman wouldn’t approve?
OR
2) Jeter never intended to stick around and it was all public posturing to get ownership, make some money and duck out and join a “real”/bigger club – either via an ownership percentage or as CEO – after getting experience here. I recall us speculating for a while whether he’d stick around with the 5-year term he originally signed up for.
Or, 3) Both 1 & 2.
Good point about Jeter possibly intending to use the Marlins minority ownership opportunity as a stepping stone all along.
Scandal incoming, maybe…
Come back to the Yanks as an advisor.
So basically, Jeter is leaving now because the Marlins are about to start spending and Jeter doesn’t want to have to pay anything. Sounds about right
not unexpected, Jeter made back the money he put in. i believe $25 mil, so now he exits.
And then some. He would have made back more than what he put in simply because the value of the team is higher. He didn’t have to sell, so that means Sherman must have offered him a high enough premium.
Jeter could probably sell a used jock strap for $25M.
Yep. I know a few fools that would jump at something like that and wear it on their heads like weird science
I’m having a 2 for 1 sale today.
He invested $38 million for a 4% share in the team. That is worth a minimum of $48 million today, probably more. Jeter only earned <$22.5 million since he has been there a tad less than 4.5 years.
Sherman’s statement is pretty cold. Must have been an interesting set of conversations between them that presaged this. No way to fairly judge Jeter’s work. He was able to get rid of some high-cost contracts, but success on the field…hasn’t been there.
Playoff berth in 2020. The only one in 12 years. Top 5 farm system after being at the bottom when he came on board. top flight analytics department after having literally none when he came on board. One of the best young pitching staffs in baseball I think its fair to say that Jeter had the organization moving in the right direction. They needed to open their wallets and invest in position players to compete. I am guessing that Sherman was more interested in collecting profits from revenue sharing than spending money on winning.
He was as good a CEO as he was a shortstop … Not very good!
He was a phenomenal SS, actually. So, that kind of makes no sense.
I think they must mean defensively
No tact.
It’s not too difficult to connect the dots.
Jeter doesn’t own the Marlins. Sherman does. Jeter maybe has a five percent share. He’s a minority owner. Just about every team has minority owners. You don’t even know who most of them are, including for your favorite team. Bruce Sherman makes all the financial decisions for the Marlins, so if Jeter wants to spend more money, Sherman has to approve it out of his team’s budget or his personal budget. Not happening.
Jeter held a business title as CEO of the Marlins, but he’s not a business person. He’s a baseball guy. He hired Kim Ng, who is very experienced in MLB, and she now handles baseball operations. From Sherman’s point of view, he can now install a real business person in the CEO position, while letting Ng run the baseball ops side.
The fact that Jeter divested himself of his ownership shares is quite telling. He could have easily said he planned to step down as CEO once his replacement was named, but that he intended to remain with the Marlins as an owner. Could have even tied it into needing to free up time for his young family, blah, blah, blah. None of that. I’m leaving as CEO and owner. That says there’s bad blood between Jeter and Sherman. This was almost inevitable. Sherman used Jeter’s reputation to help him secure the Marlins. There were other bidders, but only one that had Jeter attached to the offer. In the end, there’s only one owner. It’s Sherman, and he almost assuredly doesn’t want to spend at the level Jeter wants. That’s probably bad news for Marlins fans. More of the same.
wow, that’s shocking
Did he just become arbitration-eligible?
Routine slow grounder up the middle
And there’s Jeter diving at it, and doing a crow hop to first. Skip skip skip and he’s out!
Wow what an act of athleticism by Jeter! He managed to get Bengie Molina out by like 5 feet!
If you say that to yourself in your best John Sterling voice it’s that much better.
Front office skills about as good as his SS defense lmao
Totally unknown why he left now but fun watching all of you claiming it was because “everybody else” at the Marlins refused to spend. Please give me all the examples of Jeter spending during his time with the Marlins. It could have nothing to do with payroll. I could be that he’s the one not willing to spend, because how could anyone deserve more than what he made. It could be that they didn’t like how he was trading the farm. We may never know. All we can do is watch what the Marlins do moving forward and know Jeter was against it.
I heard the rest of the owners weren’t kicking in for his Valtrex script.
I doubt he returns to any on-field position; his backside got comfortable sitting in those Front Office seats. Be a kick to see him and Theo Epstein (who’s really just twiddling his thumbs) get some other investors and buy a team.
Does he get his 38 million he invested into buying the franchise back ?
Probably sold his shares.
Yes. He was an owner of the team and would have sold his shares. The rumors are that Sherman bought him out with a very tidy profit for Jeter.
Jeter did a good job and Marlins are in a good place for next 5 years . We will see who joins him out door . It’s not a good look with him leaving
0-3 in postseason play
NOTE: Those postseason games were during a fake season so 0-0 is just as accurate.
I guess I forgot about that Wild Card Series against the Cubs. 2-3…but still 0-0 as I said. It was a fake season.
He can go up to Minnesota and help A-Rod transform the Minnesota Timberpuppies into SOMETHING that resembles a NBA caliber team. There have been all together too few moments since the franchise began in 1989.
Timing. Why would Jeter announce this decision on the supposed final day of owner/player negotiations? He’s a former player who is now an owner (or was). Is this indicative of his not agreeing with the owners’ decisions/approach in this negotiation?
Or more specifically, “his” owner’s decisions/approach in this negotiation?
The timing of this decision is key.
Sinking ship. Marlins are a AAA farm for other teams to pluck the good players
Everyone is assuming this due to a fallout at the marlins level, but perhaps he has another opportunity that he wouldn’t have been able to pursue.
Maybe a bigger chunk of ownership is available elsewhere
Jeter’s statement doesn’t say much, but Sherman’s does. Seems like Jeter wants the team to spend money now and the team doesn’t.
Most GMs or people in Jeter position are typically on a 5 year contract. I’m guessing the franchise was not interested in another 5 years of Jeter.
Jeter will land elsewhere in a similar role.
CEOs rarely have a contract with an expiration date. Its typically open ended, even in baseball. People with an ownership position almost never have an expiration date on their contract. Jeter had $40 million invested in the Marlins, not an insubstantial sum. Sherman had to cough up that investment likely along with a nice profit for Jeter in this parting of the ways.
He is excited about the prospects of the Mets dynasty of the 2020s. We’re seeing the makings of the Big Blue Machine!
Jeter is the definition of Overrated as a player, and underrated as an executive
While Jeter was overrated on defense, no player is overrated that had 3465 hits or a career .817 OPS. When it comes to offense, he is in the top 3 or 4 all time at shortstop. I agree that he has been an underrated executive.
Hold strong, Bruce! Jeter was a terrible executive and an overall low-level investor anyway. And break the MLBPA!!!
Anyone get the feeling Jeter might have not agreed with how the labor discussions have been going and that’s part of why he is bowing out?
Always thought he was way overrated as a player and did not agree with how he let go of some great people with the origination when he first got there, but I do have to wonder if being a former player this labor issue made him sour on being CEO
Let Cashman’s deal expire then bring him in. Some good young talent in Miami, NY not so much.
Did someone ask Jeets to get something to his left?
Marlins clown car keeps on keeping on. One winning season in the last 12 years and it was their 31-29 record in 2020, and now the only guy who wants them to actually spend a few bucks is leaving.
I like Derek Jeter
@SteveAdams – Correction: “Greenlee has helped to build out an analytics department that WAS lacking” May be add prior to his arrival or under the previous ownership. The Marlins analytics department is no longer lacking.
As a Marlins fan, my initial thoughts are as follows (without any of the details we may hear later or may never hear):
1 – This obviously has to play itself out to know what happened here. Is it that Jeter has a valid concern or is this another situation like when Barry Bonds was our “Hitting Coach”? Stay tuned.
2 – It was with mixed receival that as a Miami sports fan that I had to accept both Jeter and Michael Jordan as part of the ownership team of the Marlins because I wasn’t fond of either when they were players. I came to accept them, especially I liked the emphasis on rebuilding the organization with a winning culture. I loved that and wanted the fact that both are sore losers could benefit our team with them as our owners. Now Jeter’s gone. Jordan remains. Hoping there isn’t reason to be concerned as a Marlins fan.
3 – I love Jeter leading the charge for the rebrand to the current Marlins look away from that art deco vomit look of Loria’s with the uniforms, logo, statue, etc. I further enjoyed that they did this based on the “Dimelo Miami” campaign where they actually listened to our feedback, which included brand and uniform changes. Thank you Jeter for that.
4 – Upon this departure, I hope that this results in us doing what it takes to place Jeter in the list of names in Marlins history with Albert Belle and Mike Hampton. I do not want results that place Sherman with the names of Loria and John Henry in our team history (which brings my concern).
5 – Jeter’s comments raises some concerns within me. I hope that MLB didn’t once again screw over South Florida with another garbage owner. We have had Gustavo Cisneros, Jorge Mas and even Mark Cuban as ownership possibilities. We’ve begged for Micky Arison for ownership. There are competent possibilities for Marlins ownership. If Sherman is just another swindler, this good ole boys club in MLB ownership may have done it’s last screw up with Miami sports fans. We’ll support a franchise like we’ve done with the other sports teams in town, but we need a franchise that makes an effort. As Micky Arison once said, owners need to see themselves as custodians of a city’s sports franchise…essentially a public servant with an expensive hobby. South Florida needs that in their MLB team. South Florida doesn’t need this good ole boy network crapes where owners must be part of their boys club. If Sherman is not the right guy, go back to Cisneros, Mas, or Cuban or even approach Arison to sell the team to a competent owner. We don’t need this garbage in South Florida. It’s disheartening to see what Don Shula built with the Dolphins, what Pat Riley turned the Heat to, to see the legacies of Dan Marino and Dwayne Wade, then look at what has been done to the Marlins, and seeing Miggy Cabrera have a HoF career elsewhere. I hope that Sherman shows that there’s nothing to be concerned about. I hope we have our ownership finally fixed. I hope MLB didn’t let us down again.
6 – With Jeter’s departure, I guess life is closer to normal in that I will not have to root for him any longer, which was always tough.
7 – Bring Andre Dawson, Tony Perez and Jeff Conine back! Bring Mike Lowell in!
8 – Go Marlins! Make Jeter into the next Albert Belle and Mike Hampton!
Marlins FanBase: I hope this move works out for you though because you guys have had some seriously bad ownership issues in the past. It sucks when your team’s ownership runs the team poorly. You would be the best one on here to know if Jeter’s contributions will be missed as you pay closer attention than most of us, but hopefully your team will continue building on their current young talent & momentum and not flame out due to ownership risk aversion.
Plus you’ll have to put up with Metsfan22 if you guys regress – {gulp}
@Yankee Clipper
I’m curious to see how it turns out. If he’s the only departure, then he won’t be missed because we’re not as enamored by Jeter as Yankees fans, E!SPN and FOX Sports are. I appreciate everything he did for our organization, but part of that good stuff included decisions being made in a committee, so that kind of makes it to where he and pretty much everyone in our organization will not be missed upon leaving…unless a mass exodus type of situation.
As for MetsFan22, I think I’ll be okay with him predicting doom for the Marlins. I think all of us non-Mets fans from the other 29 fan bases would always want MetsFan22 to predict doom for our teams. After all, with a prediction history like his, who wouldn’t want him to give a doomsday prediction for their team?
“ with a prediction history like his, who wouldn’t want him to give a doomsday prediction for their team?”
Lololol – nice!
Just get rid of this crap franchise move them to a city that would actually have a fanbase
He should of said AKA “ I am leaving because even with new ownership they have decided being cheap and taking the profits is better than putting a winner on the field.”
Marlins will have a couple of crappy seasons and then win the World Series. They do that in cycles. Fire sale … 2-3 years … WS.
unimpressed with his record with the Marlins.
Jeter left then in a great position. Now they need to spend and maybe trade some of the deep pitching to build the bad offense.
But they are certainly better post-Jeter.
I believe that’s the problem. The Marlins don’t intend to spend, so Jeter left. Promises were made coming in and he now realizes they won’t be fulfilled.
Jeter wasn’t the General Manager, he was the CEO. Jeter’s Project Wolverine projections were an absolute failure. Every benchmark Jeter laid out, he did not meet. Missed cable deal revenue targets, missed sponsorship revenue targets, projected profits were not realized — losses upon losses. The Marlins finances under CEO Derek Jeter’s stewardship were abysmal. Certainly big money investors bamboozled by “Project Wolverine” would view Jeter’s departure as a positive.
Corona Virus probably wasn’t part of his original plan. I would assume that most teams fell short of their five year projections going back to 2017.
2018 for the Marlins, since Sherman and Jeter took over the team AFTER the 2017 season.
The new TV deal nearly tripled the previous deal. PHENOMENAL. A new stadium naming rights deal that is in line with other naming rights deals around the league after 10 years of not having one. AWESOME!. Sponsorship money is up over 200% even though attendance is down. INCREDIBLE!! Profits? How do you know WHAT the Marlins profits were? They are not owned by a publicly held company and their books are closed. Other than the thing they disclosed publicly like the new TV deal, the new naming rights deal, and bragging about sponsorship deals to the Herald, none of us know exactly what their profits are. What we know for sure is that between the 3 things I mentioned and increased revenue from national TV deals, the Marlins now have the highest revenue in their club history. If they didn’t sell a single ticket they would be very profitable with a payroll of $60 million like it was last season.
Was Jeter ever given the wrench necessary to make the Fish a contender? “Without a wrench” you can’t do the job folks….
Not the news I was expecting today.
I’ve seen tweets and comments from a number of players basically giving respect to Jeter for standing by his beliefs. In a nutshell: Jeter wanted to increase spending to try and win; Sherman said no; Jeter said I’m out. You can’t view this as good news if you’re a Marlins fan. It means no spending and investment of note moving forward. The one person you know was driven to win was just driven out.
He said he wanted to work for a more reputable and successful company, listing Circuit City, K-Mart and Toys R Us as possible better options
He did well for himself, if nothing else. His $25MM investment was paid out at about $40M, plus he made another $25MM as CEO. $65 million for five years of work.
$38 million investment for 4% of the team which was valued at $1.2 billion when he bought it and $1.4 billion today. If he is paid out at the value of the team at purchase price, that is a $48 million buyout and a $10 million profit for Jeter. Since he didn’t have to sell his shares, Sherman likely bought him out at much more than market value. He was only CEO for a little less than 4.5 years, so he made a little less than $22.5 million in salary unless Sherman also paid him severance.
Feels like the Mike Shildt firing. I hate it when both sides are close lipped in order to protect the larger brand. You know there’s good and bad on both sides but I want to be able to decide for myself who the real villain is. As a fan these statements feel condescending. If you want my money, I want the whole story.
2uitter.
As Jeter is now an ex-owner/shareholder (and presumably free to speak his mind) I wonder if he’d care to weigh-in on the current CBA conflict. He might have some interesting things to say, especially at this moment in time, having lived in both worlds.
Jeter’s not going to commit career suicide one way or the other by commenting on that matter. In the second article about this it claims money to spend after the lockout was the issue but I’m sure its more than just that.
Jeter has never been one to volunteer information. He’s only going to talk when required and this isn’t it.
Jeter (on ledge): “I’m gonna jump!!!”
Sherman: “Gimme a minute to move my Maserati first.”
I don’t think Jeter is done yet. He’ll join some team if it’s not the Yankees.
He will probably come back as a player like Michael Jordan did with Washington. Try to drive up ticket sales and increase the franchise value.
Jeter will end up being the Yankees GM eventually
So there are clear baseball and business reasons as to why he left, as he wanted to win no matter the cost and the rest of the Marlins owners want to pinch pennies. However, what’s getting lost in all of this is the fact that he has three very young daughters (ages 4, 2, and 3 months respectively, according to his Wikipedia page). He probably wants to take some time off to raise his family as well. He definitely can afford to do that since he has millions upon millions of dollars in the bank from his earnings as a player and numerous endorsement deals.
Are you suggesting Derek’s bird isn’t working well enough for Hannah?
A Yankista only Can be a Yankista …. See you in the Bronx