Earth to Jeter — Marlins need help

News CEO owes fans a face-to-face accounting

Precisely which planet is Derek Jeter living on?

And does it get emergency alerts?

Because, Earth to Jeter, Earth to Jeter: The Dolphins didn’t need you Monday. The Marlins did.

You can’t sit in the odd orbit of a Dolphins luxury box Monday night, getting face time on national television, while the baseball world wonders why the new face of the Marlins franchise was too busy to come to Orlando and answer up to questions at the winter meetings.

What a disappointment this guy’s opening innings are.

Not because he traded Giancarlo Stanton. No, not that. Any new Marlins owner had to do that dirty deed thanks to the inherited mess of a backloaded, $325 million contract on top of other roster fiascos. This wasn’t on Jeter. It was on Jeffrey Loria. And Jeter owed it to the disappearing Marlins fan to say so on a national stage.

That’s what baseball fans needed to see as the developed rage at Jeter became a public stoning over the trade. Not him at a Dolphins game. Not him mulling a fourth-and-2 play. Not him on some parallel sports planet. Not that.

Jeter also did a charity event for Puerto Rico’s hurricane recovery with former teammate Jorge Posada. But Orlando is less

than an hour’s flight away. Fly in. Fly out. Bingo, bango, all duties are done.

What should really scare Marlins fans is Jeter either doesn’t understand his role as the new face and lone voice of a troubled franchise — or he doesn’t care about filling that particular role. He did a phone interview with South Florida reporters Monday. And President of Baseball Operations Michael Hill faced the music at the winter meetings.

But this type of move demanded a face-to-face with the new face of the Marlins. He instead let the narrative play that Marlins fans should “watch from afar,” as Stanton said. He let the storyline continue that they’ll never be more than a chop shop for bigger teams. He refused to be the public voice of leadership in a way his role demands.

And that, folks, is more scary than the Stanton trade. More scary than the $5 million salary Jeter’s paying himself to cover his puny, $25 million buy-in to run the team. More scary than all the missteps he’s already made, from firing a scout who sat in a hospital bed to firing, then re-firing, Marlins lifers like Jeff Conine and Jack McKeon.

If he can’t understand his role, if he doesn’t get this simple concept of public leadership, if he can’t grasp how much this troubled franchise needs a good baseball voice, how can he get the more difficult stuff right?

The Marlins burn. He watches the Dolphins. The baseball world laughs at this franchise. He sits among The Beautiful People. The traded ex-face of the franchise, Stanton, suggests Marlins fans should stay away as he puts on a Yankees uniform.

And what’s the new face of the Marlins franchise do?

Does he stand before the baseball world at these meetings with a strong voice, brave idea and public blueprint of the future?

He’s shown on national television, evidently to underscore his stated idea of not talking through the media. Which, again, shows how much he has to learn in his ownership role. Players don’t have to talk to the media. That’s their right.

But a new owner walking fans through perpetual rings of fire has to talk to fans —– and that means showing his face at the winter meetings and showing how leadership works. Here’s who else needs to surface and explain the Marlins’ situation: Commissioner Rob Manfred.

Manfred was South Florida’s lone hope through this recent sale. That was written all along. Outgoing owner Loria didn’t care about this community. The other owners didn’t know enough. It was up to Manfred to set this right.

Yet the commissioner pushed through a $1.2 billion sale that most people (Jeter’s group excluded) thought was well overpriced. The jilted suitor, Jorge Mas, labeled it once as a “crazy” price and another billionaire who was interested enough to see the Marlins’ books said, “It’ll never work at that price.”

And now a fire sale is underway. So the publicly funded baseball stadium that was supposed to prevent such chaos did nothing but put the public into more debt. What’s Manfred have to say about this?

Maybe he says nothing. Maybe he’s delighted a national team like the Yankees got Stanton. Maybe he’s on his own planet.

Stanton didn’t even need to tell South Florida baseball fans to “watch from afar.” They’ve watched from afar for years. The hope was they’d return with new ownership. Earth to Jeter? Earth to Jeter?