Report: Jeter group to buy the Marlins

Could Derek Jeter do for the Miami Marlins what Magic Johnson did for the Dodgers?

In 2012, as the face of a Dodgers ownership group that had bought the team from Frank McCourt, who had taken the team into bankruptcy, Johnson stood at a Dodger Stadium news conference and proclaimed: “Frank is not here. He’s not a part of the Dodgers anymore. We should be clapping just for that.”

Jeter might stand at a Marlins Park news conference someday soon and say much the same thing, substituting the name of Jeffrey Loria for McCourt.

A group led by Jeter and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has won the bidding for the Miami Marlins, Bloomberg first reported Tuesday.

If the Marlins finalize a deal with the Jeter-Bush group, it could take weeks or months for MLB to scrutinize the financing and approve the deal. The winning bid was $1.3 billion, according to the Miami Herald.

Commissioner Rob Manfred said MLB must be assured a new ownership group has the money to buy the team and additional money to operate it successfully.

“There are multiple groups interested in acquiring the Marlins,” Manfred said at the Chicago Cubs-Pittsburgh Pirates game in Pittsburgh. “One of those groups is the Bush-Jeter group. When we have a resolution as to which bid is going to be accepted, we will announce that.”

Jeter could be the face of a baseball revival in South Florida, just as Johnson was the face of a Dodgers revival after his group, with Guggenheim Partners’ Mark Walter as the money man, bought the team from McCourt.

Loria is not well regarded in Miami, in part because of the Marlins’ poor performance and in part because he persuaded Florida legislators to use tax dollars on the Marlins’ ballpark based on what were later shown to be misstatements about the financial condition of the team.