Manfred: Marlins sale moving along

Although current Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria said he didn’t “know anything about anything” this week, when asked about the status of his team, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred clarified Thursday that the potential sale of the Marlins “is moving forward,” and that there are at least two parties vying for ownership of the South Florida baseball club.

“There are two bidders, at least, for the franchise,” Manfred said at the baseball owners’ meetings at Major League Baseball’s Manhattan headquarters. “The bidders are in relatively the same place in terms of price (an estimated $1.3 billion asking price), maybe miniscule differences. They are in fact in the price range that Mr. Loria was looking for.”

But while Manfred alluded to the two bidders — one is a group that includes retired Yankee captain Derek Jeter and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and the other a group led by 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s son, Tagg, and Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine — Stonington Capital Advisors co-founder Dana Pawlicki told the Daily News Thursday that the financial services firm is working with former Yankees executive Joe Molloy on trying to buy the team as well.

“We have been working with Joe Molloy since the early spring, and the conversations have been really active the last two to three weeks,” Pawlicki said. “(The Marlins team) is an under-utilized asset. It hasn’t been used to its full potential.” Molloy, the former managing general partner of the Yankees when the late George Steinbrenner was banned from running the team in the early ’90s, was married to Steinbrenner’s daughter, Jessica. When Molloy ran the Yankees, he oversaw the drafting of Jeter in 1992.

“The process is moving forward. It’s really between the Marlins and the bidders at this point,” said Manfred. “Two things need to happen: there needs to be a solidified financial structure presented to us so that we’re sure that we actually have a transaction that can move ahead. And there are certain documents, the most important of which are the purchase and sale agreement, that need to be negotiated between the buyer and the seller.” All 29 MLB clubs vote on any potential purchaser, and there must be 75% approval by the owners for a sale to be finalized.

David Samson, the Marlins president, told The News Thursday that he feels a sale will happen “in a relatively short period of time.”

“It’s not surprising there is great interest in the team,” said Samson, who is training for a charity-driven “World Marathon Challenge” event in January 2018, where he will attempt to run seven marathons, on seven continents in seven days. Asked what would become of his team executive role if the team is sold, Samson said he would have to wait and see.

“I represent Jeffrey as his president. I’ve been doing this for 18 seasons,” said Samson. “Whatever happens, I serve at the pleasure of the owner. And whoever the new owner would be, I would either continue to serve at his or her pleasure, or not.”

It’s hard to overstate the shock value of watching Matt Harvey, in an otherwise so-so start against the Diamondbacks, overmatch Paul Goldschmidt, one of the best hitters in baseball, as if it were 2013 again and the one-time ace was still free of surgical scars.

In consecutive at-bats, Goldschmidt struck out on three pitches, failing to so much as foul off a single pitch.

It was enough to believe that Harvey isn’t a lost cause just yet.

That is, if he’s got his head screwed on right again. Clearly the Mets aren’t convinced of that, at least as it applies to his confidence.

After Harvey went off on his weekend bender, apparently in reaction to getting dumped by his supermodel girlfriend, the Mets thought he was too fragile mentally to risk starting him at home, exposing him to angry fans.

But enough with the babying, already. Terry Collins raved about how well Harvey pitched on Wednesday, at least his last couple of innings of work, and it was true that he finally found some rhythm and was attacking hitters with confidence — only to be pulled by the manager after a one-out single in the sixth.

You could say it was reaction by Collins to leaving Harvey in for the sixth inning of his previous start in Milwaukee, and watching him unravel.

A source, however, said it was likely more the result of GM Sandy Alderson being angry at Collins after that Milwaukee start, and practically ordering him to make confidence-building the priority in managing Harvey.

In other words, if he’s pitching well, get him out when he can feel good about himself.

Or what? Someone will have to take his belt and shoelaces away from him?

The Mets held Harvey accountable by suspending him for his no-show at the ballpark, and good for them. But now they need to treat him like an accomplished major