Jeter dumps McKeon, Conine, Dawson and Perez

Derek Jeter, not yet in charge of the Miami Marlins, has already begun making personnel decisions.

Jeter, the face of the prospective new ownership group led by Bruce Sherman, fired four members of the front office this week, according to multiple reports: Jack McKeon, Jeff Conine, Andre Dawson and Tony Perez.

McKeon is a special assistant to the owner, Jeffrey Loria, who agreed last month to sell the club to the Sherman-Jeter group for $1.2 billion, pending approval from three-quarters of Major League Baseball’s other team owners.

Conine, Dawson and Perez are special assistants to the president, David Samson. Jeter asked Samson, according to the Miami Herald, to inform the quartet that Jeter will not be keeping them on board.

Samson himself also is expected not to be retained by new ownership.

The special-assistant titles are largely of the ambassador/figurehead variety. These firings will have little to no impact on day-to-day team operations, though further front-office changes are possible.

The winningest manager in Marlins history at 281-257, McKeon managed the Marlins to their 2003 World Series championship after inheriting a losing team that May. He led the team through 2005 and returned as the interim manager in 2011, after Loria fired Edwin Rodriguez.

Conine is, of course, known as “Mr. Marlin.” An original Marlin, Conine finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 1993, was an All-Star in 1994 and 1995 and was a leader of the 1997 World Series team.

The Marlins traded him to the Royals that November — 25 days after the World Series — and re-acquired him in a trade on Aug. 31, 2003, a late addition to their second and only other World Series roster.

Perez (Class of 2000) and Dawson (Class of 2010) are Hall of Famers.

Perez’s playing career ended before the Marlins came into existence, but through the years he has worked for the team in a variety of roles, including manager in 2001.

Dawson, a Miami native, played for the Marlins his final two major league seasons, 1995-96, hitting .261 in 121 games.

The sale of the team from Loria to Jeter and Sherman is expected to close shortly after the end of the regular season.

Eliminated from playoffs

The Marlins are not going to the playoffs this year.

That inevitability became reality late Friday night. The Marlins were mathematically eliminated from postseason contention with a week-plus remaining in the regular season, on a technicality related to the Cardinals’ win.

For good measure, the Rockies’ win reduced the Marlins’ so-called elimination number to zero. Those results rendered the Marlins’ 13-11 loss to the Diamondbacks meaningless as far as the standings go.

The Marlins, who with an August hot stretch got to within 4 1⁄2 games back as late as Aug. 28, sealed their own fate with a weeks-long, team-wide slump that started that day.

Miami then endured a stretch of three wins in three weeks, going 3-17, including 2-8 on a road trip that extended through last weekend after three home games were relocated to Milwaukee as a result of Hurricane Irma. The Marlins were outscored 42-13 in their final five games of that stretch.

This represents a step back from 2016, when the Marlins remained mathematically alive in the playoff race into the final week.

The Marlins have missed the postseason for 14 consecutive seasons, every year since winning the 2003 World Series. That’s the longest streak in the National League and secondlongest streak in the majors behind the Seattle Mariners, who are at 15 seasons in a row but still have an outside shot at an AL wildcard berth.

At 72-81 entering Saturday night’s game, the Marlins — barring a win in all of their final nine games — will finish under .500 for the eighth season in a row. They haven’t had a winning record since 2009, the year before Giancarlo Stanton debuted.