Owner Sherman reiterates his commitment to Marlins, winning
Bruce Sherman was confused and downright baffled last month when a report in the Los Angeles Times said that the Marlins “could go up for sale soon.”
Sherman, heading into his sixth season as chairman and principal owner of the organization, had no idea from where that intel came. All he could say was that it wasn’t true.
“The Miami Marlins are not for sale, have not been for sale under my ownership, and will not be for sale in my lifetime. It is irresponsible to report otherwise,” Sherman said in a statement on Jan 24, a day after the report surfaced.
Sherman, speaking publicly on Tuesday ahead of the Marlins’ first official full-squad workout of spring training, doubled down on his statement.
“I think it’s so silly and so foolish,” Sherman said
Tuesday about the report, adding that “nothing’s changed here. If you don’t like me, you’re stuck with me. That’s all I can tell you.”
Sherman said he remains committed to the cause and the ultimate end goal — winning on a consistent basis and being annual contenders for the playoffs. That has been lacking to this point.
Miami is 287-420 since Sherman’s ownership group took over ahead of the 2018 season. The Marlins’ only blip of success came during the pandemic-shortened
2020 season, when the team went 31-29 and reached the National League Division Series. The team has lost at least 93 games in each of the four full seasons under Sherman’s watch.
The Marlins this offseason overhauled its roster for first-year manager
Skip Schumaker. The team traded for reigning American League batting title champion Luis Arraez after signing infielder
Jean Segura and righthanded pitcher Johnny Cueto. Miami also beefed up the back end of its bullpen with the acquisitions of Matt Barnes and A.J. Puk.
This comes one offseason after the team signed ace Sandy Alcantara, who won the National League Cy Young Award last season, to a five-year, $56 million deal and also gave big contracts to outfielders Avisail Garcia (four years, $53 million) and Jorge Soler (who made
$12 million last season, is making $15 million this season and has a $9 million option for 2024) — although Garcia and Soler struggled in their first season with Miami.
The Marlins’ 26-man Opening Day payroll as the roster currently stands is estimated at $90.35 million, according to
Cot’s Baseball. While still far below league average, it is about an $11 million increase from last season and would be the fourth-highest payroll to begin a season in franchise history, behind 2017 ($115.4 million), 2012 ($101.6 million) and 2018 ($99.5 million).
But the Marlins still face a daunting task in their division, with the National League East featuring three teams that made the playoffs last year in the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves and New York Mets — all three of whom have substantially higher payrolls than Miami this season.
“I think we compete with anybody,” Sherman said. “I’m not gonna talk about other teams. We want to take every incremental dollar and put that right into the team. It’s about baseball at the end of the day, not about profits. We want to win, and we’re going to work hard to win.”
MORE HIGHLIGHTS FROM SHERMAN
On his message to
● the team: “I spoke for about a good 15 minutes, probably talked too long. I’ll even tell you the topics. I spoke about ownership and our goal as ownership. I spoke about the rule changes a little bit and embracing the rule changes. And then I gave them an anecdotal baseball story, which I won’t get into because it was kind of personal. But yeah, and Skip was great. As was everybody — as [GM] Kim [Ng] was, as everyone was in that room. There’s a different vibe.”
Any concerns with ● the television deal considering the current state of Bally Sports:
“This television situation with Bally certainly was not a surprise to me or the Miami Marlins organization. We saw this coming and it’ll get through it. We have a deal just signed two years ago, so our deal’s in place . ... Should there be a hiccup, as
[MLB commissioner] Rob Manfred said, baseball is committed to putting these games on directly.”
●
On how hands-on he was when it came to the Marlins’ offseason moves:
“We have a good front office. I was very hands-on. I’m not just a rubber stamp of approval. Lots of conversations. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I know we have experts in there and if we don’t have experts, we’re gonna make sure we have the experts. Whether it’s analytics, whether it’s coaching, whether it’s the three assistant general managers, these are people who have been around baseball. That’s what they do for their career, just like you report on baseball and sports for your career. Very hands-on and it was a breath of fresh air. It was exciting to do it. All ownerships are going to rely on their management they hired.”