‘It’s a learning process,’ Jeter says after draft
It didn’t take long for Derek Jeter to make an impact on the Miami Marlins.
In his first offseason as part-owner and CEO, Jeter traded perhaps the four biggest names on his team’s roster — Dee Gordon, Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna and Christian Yelich — in a series of moves that netted him a lot of prospects and even more public criticism.
After all that, it’s easy to forget it’s the 14-time All-Star’s first full season in the front office.
On Friday, while talking to the media before the Marlins’ matchup with the Padres, Jeter admitted he’s still trying to absorb everything through thorough consultation with the people around him.
“It’s still a learning process. You know, I’m still learning,” Jeter said. “One thing I think I’m good at is knowing what I don’t know. So I put people in place that have the skillset in order to make those decisions. I have my opinions. When we sit down, I always like to have as much information as possible before making a decision. And we have great people in place that have a lot of information. So it’s a joint effort.”
The most recent example of Jeter’s learning experience was this year’s draft, which took place earlier this week.
Jeter joked that he hasn’t been a full participant in the draft process since 1992, the year he was drafted by the Yankees with the sixth overall pick. Now he’s on the other side of things. Now, he’s the man trying to rebuild an entire organization in his vision.
“I was very vocal. You know, I’ve learned a lot, obviously, about the players throughout the process,” Jeter said. “We have a scouting department, and we have a player development staff that know a lot more than I do. But, you know, I would know the direction that we’re going, and it’s very important for us to draft athletes — as many athletes as
possible.”
In the first round on Monday, the Marlins selected high school outfielder Connor Scott from Tampa with the 13th pick, and Jeter says Scott is a guy the team targeted before the draft began.
Tuesday, Scott signed for a $4 million bonus. Friday, he sat between Jeter and president of baseball operations Michael Hill at a pregame event, answering his first questions from the media since being selected.
When asked about his style of play, Scott talked about his leadership. That, too, is part of Jeter’s vision for his team.
“One thing that we want to do, is every single person in this organization is going to represent us in a firstclass manner,” Jeter said. “That doesn’t necessarily just mean on the field. It’s how you handle yourself off the field. And that goes for the front office as well. So we’ve gotten a lot of great people into this organization on the business side, and we’ve gotten a lot of good players on the baseball side. So it’s important for us, like I said, to develop these people that we’ve brought in. But it is important how you handle yourself.”
The flip side of things is the product on the field. Through 62 games, the Marlins are 22-40, on pace for 104 losses. It isn’t an easy time to sell athletes, hope and playing the right way.
Jeter understands this. He also understands that his vision will take some time.
“It’s tough,” Jeter said. “I’d be lying to you if I said it wasn’t tough. You want the results to be there right away, but you can’t just snap your fingers and turn around something that’s been broken. This organization, when it comes to competing on the field, it wasn’t working. It wasn’t working for a long time. We will fix it, and we want it to happen sooner than later.”