Jeter era opens with pitch for patience
CEO warns of long process
MIAMI — Derek Jeter has a plan, but he’s not ready to tell you what it is yet.
Jeter, the Miami Marlins’ new CEO, and Bruce Sherman, the chairman/principal owner, stressed that fans are “our No. 1 priority” and preached patience when it comes to turning the Marlins around, repeatedly noting their desire to engage the community and that they believe in Miami as a market and the Marlins as an organization.
But, speaking Tuesday at Marlins Park during their introductory news conference, Jeter and Sherman offered few specifics regarding how they intend on changing the region’s sentiment toward the team and reversing the Marlins’ on-field fortunes.
“This is a long process,” said Sherman, a retired money manager who lives in Naples. “We’re prepared and we want to win.”
Sherman and Jeter, who has a small ownership stake, finalized their purchase of the team for $1.2 billion from Jeffrey Loria Monday. A day later, at the dawn of what could be a transformational offseason for the franchise, the pair’s agenda included meeting with Marlins employees as they started to lay out their vision.
Jeter warned of looming “unpopular decisions” and acknowledged that the organization will rebuild.
“The word teardown and rebuild — yeah, we are rebuilding a franchise,”’ Jeter said. “But I think a lot of people associate those words with losing. You never go into a situation and the message is ‘We’re going to lose.’
“We’re rebuilding it, putting the right people in place. Everything is strategic, and we have a plan for what we’re doing. But at the same time, we have to have patience.”
Jeter and Sherman, wearing matching navy blue suit jackets and light blue button-down dress shirts, playfully bantered with each other and reporters throughout their 25-minute question-and-answer session, avoiding particulars but hitting on several key themes.
Among them: Reaching out to the community, which for years had a largely toxic relationship with the previous regime, and building from within.
“We feel as though there’s huge upside, and that starts with community engagement,” Jeter said. “Get back in the community and bring the fans back.”
On the baseball side, Jeter — a five-time World Series champion as the New York Yankees’ superstar shortstop — wants to be thorough.
“We’re going to build it from the top down, bottom up, however you want to say it,” said Jeter, who noted he will use “everything in moderation” when it comes to analytics.
“It starts with player development, scouting. We have to be strong in those areas, because if you’re going to have a sustainable organization over time, you need that pipeline of young players that can come in.”
Running the Marlins will be Jeter’s first baseball executive experience. Although he fired four vice presidents in the baseball-operations department, president of baseball operations Michael Hill is remaining — at least for now — and Jeter will make several of his own higher-up hires.
“One thing I’m very good at is knowing what I don’t know,” Jeter said. “I surround myself with people who are much more smarter than I am, and I lean on them for advice.”
Jeter touched on many of
the same ideas in a letter to fans posted Tuesday morning on his website The Players’ Tribune and the Marlins’ website. In it, he recounted his first Miami visit, as 17-year-old on a recruiting trip to UM, and made a series of promises to the fan base and city.
“I won’t make any predictions, but I will make a few promises,” Jeter wrote.
The promises: “We’re going to develop a winning culture,” “We’re going to celebrate the culture and diversity of this community,” and “We believe in the Marlins’ organization.”
Notably, when asked about the status of manager Don Mattingly and the coaching staff, Jeter did not say outright that Mattingly would be back.
Jeter did, however, praise Mattingly, his former Yankees teammate and coach and his predecessor as Yankees captain, saying “I have the utmost respect for Donnie.”
“I saw Donnie yesterday. It’s a long season, so I told him to get out of here. Go enjoy himself and go back to his family,” Jeter said. “Everyone will sit down once the time is right and evaluate everyone.”
“The bottom line is it’s going to take us some time to figure out what directions we’re going to go in certain things,” Jeter said. “We have plenty of time to make those decisions. Like I said before, it’s going to call for a lot of patience.”
“We’re going to build it from the top down, bottom up, however you want to say it.” Marlins CEO Derek Jeter