Jeter takes over
Jeter reveals no specifics, but he must know a rebuild is in order
Marlins CEO doesn’t have much to say, but he’s got a lot to do.
MIAMI — Let me guess, he’s excited to own the Marlins.
“This is an exciting day,” Derek Jeter said.
And he be- lieves in baseball in South Florida.
“We believe in this market,” Jeter said Tuesday in his eraopening news conference. “We believe in the fan base. We are focused on bringing the fans back.”
And like any new owner on any new team — and we’ve had practice with these first days — Jeter won’t say jack publicly about anything else, from Don Mattingly’s status to Giancarlo Stanton’s future ...
“This is the first day,” Jeter said.
... to even whether he likes the home run sculpture in centerfield (like I do).
“We had never even spoken of it, and then someone said we were getting rid of it,” he said. “Then I read we couldn’t get rid of it even if we wanted to get rid of it.”
“Every one of our partners has an opinion [on the sculpture],” said Bruce Sherman, the primary money man of the new
ownership group, who sat with Jeter on Tuesday.
“We all have opinions,” Jeter said.
And guess what? He’s not sharing any of them. Jeter has never dealt in opinions or public words, because he just needed to step on the field and win with his actions as a player in New York.
But Jeter, the new team CEO in the his new community, needs to deal in the world of words. He needs to come across a little more exciting than the lackluster way he did on Monday. He certainly needs to educate fans and engage corporate sponsors in his new community while he has the chance coming up.
This is his first challenge if he wants to win here. Everyone will want to embrace him for a while as much for who he isn’t (Jeffrey Loria) as who he is (a Hall of Fame ex-player). But that time is fleeting. Ask Michael Jordan. He’d best use it wisely.
Jeter must see what everyone does, too. He must see a roster teardown is coming, even though as he said at one point, “I don’t like the word teardown. Moving forward, there’s going to be, at times, unpopular decisions we make on behalf of the franchise.”
OK, “unpopular decisions” it is then. The Marlins have a bloated payroll with eight players making $95 million next year. They have an empty minor league system. They have a roster that maxed out at 77 wins despite Stanton hitting a boggling 59 home runs, Marcell Ozuna hitting 37 and Dee Gordon leading the league in steals.
Jeter was blessed with this inheritance: Stanton’s trade value has never been higher. His star has risen. He is one of the top players in baseball, when healthy, which he was for the first time in years this season.
Let’s remember, though, how at midseason the conversation was how the Marlins would ever get out from under Stanton’s contract. So, again, Jeter gets to trade Stanton at the perfect time to refurbish a roster. Ozuna, too. He’s two years from free agency. Get something while you can.
Selling fans on this is just half Jeter’s sales job, too. He needs to sell corporate partners on the new Marlins. Again, him. Not Sherman. Not the minority partner Carrero brothers, who own a team in their native Venezuela and will help bridge the Spanish-speaking world for the Marlins.
Jeter needs to sell some company’s CEO on putting their name on Marlins Park in a way the old regime never could. Maybe that’s just $8 million a year. That’s still a middle reliever or two.
He also needs to sell Fox Sports Florida, their local TV partner, to renegotiate the deal to help both of them. A better payout means a better team and better ratings. Arizona, a similar baseball market, gets $70 million from their TV deal. The Marlins get $20 million on a contract that ends in two years.
Jeter didn’t say much Tuesday. Lackluster, again, was the word. It would have been nice if he offered starving fans something to get excited about.
Like: “Give us the benefit of the doubt, because we’ll give you everything have. Like: “I’m a winner. I know how to win. And I don’t intend for that to change in my new role.”
He didn’t say that. Words have never been necessary for him. They are now. He spent part of Tuesday talking about the hard work in buying the team. Maybe so. But now his hard work really begins.