Smooth on the field, Jeter struggles in new role in Marlins’ front office

Derek Jeter, The Player, glided through two decades in the Big Apple. His charisma made it all look so effortless, a beloved figure who could seemingly do no wrong, even in the media cauldron that is New York City.

Which makes Derek Jeter, The Baseball Executive, all the more baffling.

How has a guy who rarely took a wrong step during his long career as the Yankees shortstop and captain managed to become Public Enemy No. 1 in South Florida in just a few short months?

Now, this isn’t one of those piling-on diatribes against Jeter for overseeing the latest fire sale by the Miami Marlins .

Frankly, he had no real options beyond dumping MVP slugger Giancarlo Stanton and the worst contract in sports history on his former team . Jeter would probably serve his new team well in the long run by unloading a few more top-of-the-line players. (Christian Yelich, anyone?)

What’s more surprising is how quickly Jeter has alienated those he desperately needs to win over while he puts the Marlins through a few more excruciating seasons of starting from scratch .

Namely, the ever-dwindling Marlins fans base.

Jeter has made one public-relations misstep after another since taking over as CEO in October, when a $1.2 billion sale from Jeffrey Loria to the Bruce Sherman-led partnership was approved.

Since a 20-minute introductory news conference, Jeter has essentially declared the Miami media to be persona non grata. He did a fluff interview with the team’s flagship radio station and a hastily called teleconference during the winter meetings this week after dealing Stanton to the Yankees.

That’s it.

“One thing that has been consistent with me throughout my career is I do not operate through the media,” Jeter said on that call.

Problem is, he needs the media to get out the message he’s trying to sell to Marlins fans, who are so jaded at this point that the damage may be irreparable.

If nothing else, Jeter (or anyone not named Loria, for that matter) should’ve enjoyed a bit of honeymoon, even if it was his intent to dismantle the roster once again.

All he had to do was make himself accessible, turn on the charm and let everyone know he was in this for the long haul. All he had to do was make it clear that he wasn’t Loria Lite, running the Marlins like a cash machine for his personal account.

There would’ve been grumbles, for sure, but Jeter could’ve pointed to the World Series champion Houston Astros as his template, a franchise that bottomed out no so long ago with three straight 100loss seasons but always with the intent of rebuilding the farm system and setting up something the Marlins have never had in their quarter-century of existence — long-term success.

“If you want to be sustainable as an organization, you have to be good from top to bottom,” Jeter said, again from that conference call. “We’re going to invest in building this organization the right way so we can year in and year out compete.”

But those sage words have been drowned out by Jeter’s blunders, from making only a handful of public appearances to skipping out on attending the winter meetings — even though they were being held in the same state. Instead, Jeter was spotted Monday night in a luxury box at the Dolphins NFL game. He’s also turned up in Miami at an NBA game, where he was booed when shown on the video board.

Of course, the Marlins were a damaged product long before Jeter arrived.

This is a franchise that followed up two World Series titles Paul Newberry is a sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at pnewberry@ap.org