Report: Loria selling to Jeter group

Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria has agreed to sell the franchise for $1.2 billion to a group led by New York businessman Bruce Sherman and former Yankees star Derek Jeter, according to a New York-based Major League Baseball source.

Marlins president David Samson on Friday declined to comment about where the sales process stood.

Sherman, a wealthy venture capitalist who has a home in New York and is building a home in South Florida, will be the “control person,” similar to a managing general partner. But Jeter will run the business and baseball sides of the organization, the source said.

The Sherman/Jeter group has about 16 investors.

MLB officials are expected to discuss the sale, but not vote on it, in owners meetings in Chicago next week. Sherman and possibly Jeter are expected to meet with the ownership committee prior for a full vote of owners, which is the final required step for the sale’s completion.

The vote could be weeks away, with closing expected the first week of October.

Loria has owned the team since 2002 and won a World Series in 2003, but the Marlins haven’t made the playoffs since then. He decided to sell the team for personal reasons and had been seeking a buyer for months.

The Marlins are expected to lose more than $60 million this season, according to a source who has seen their books, in part because their revenues are among the lowest in MLB and also because their $115 million payroll is the largest in franchise history.