After cold winter for Marlins, Jeter needs thick skin
BEVERLY HILLS – It was just four months ago when future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter was the most popular man in South Florida, becoming part-owner and CEO of the Miami Marlins, replacing despised Jeffrey Loria.
Well, here we are today, and Jeter might be the most hated.
Jeter, in proud Marlins tradition, has conducted the fire sale of all fire sales, slashing about $350 million in contracts, firing employees and dumping franchise icons.
And, oh, how the South Florida fan base has let him and principal owner Bruce Sherman know what they think, giving up their season tickets, with the Marlins expected to play in front of tens of thousands of empty seats every day.
Jeter, speaking publicly for the first time since meeting with season ticketholders in December, understands the anger and frustration from fans and asks for patience.
“We’re coming into a situation that wasn’t working, right?” Jeter said Thursday, departing the Major League Baseball owners meetings. “I think people have been pretty vocal about wanting a team on the field that has an opportunity to win. The team that was on the field wasn’t doing that.
“I understand the frustrations. These fans have been through quite a bit. So we plan to listen as much as we possibly can, but the ultimate goal is to be successful over time.”
Sure, there have been plenty of public relations gaffes along the way, whether terminating veteran scout Marty Scott while he was hospitalized or firing Hall of Famers Tony Perez and Andre Dawson and World Series-winning former manager Jack McKeon.
Still, Jeter deserves patience as he tries to build a floundering franchise into a contender.
The folks in Chicago certainly trusted Theo Epstein when he traded away their popular veterans for prospects, watching their team stink on the field, and in three years built a World Series champion.
The same in Houston when the Astros were losing 111 games a year under new GM Jeff Luhnow and turned into a World Series championship team in
2017, and the team to beat again in baseball.
The Marlins franchise was $400 million in debt when Sherman and Jeter bought the team, losing $60 million alone last year. They haven’t reached the playoffs since 2003 and have gone without a single winning season since
2009.
The Marlins drew just 1.6 million fans last year, but only 820,000 actually went through the turnstiles, according to the Miami Herald, leaving them with a woeful $30 million in ticket revenue.
Something dramatic had to be done, and while the players union certainly has been concerned with the drastic measures, Jeter and Commissioner Rob Manfred said the union has not filed a grievance against the Marlins.
“Our fans are very sophisticated,” Manfred said.
“They know the Houston Astros won last year, how they won and the process they went through. They are reminded what the Chicago Cubs went through and what they did in order to put themselves in position to win.
“It’s unrealistic to think that everyone is going to have the same expectation to win on the same timetable. It has to be in different points in this process to develop the best position possible.”
And for the folks in South Florida, that’s for the Marlins to lose, lose big and perhaps for quite a while.
“Listen, from our opening press con- ference,” Jeter said, “I said there would be some unpopular decisions that will be made. I think we’ve been very open and honest from Day 1 with what could be expected.”
Maybe the fans knew it was inevitable that Giancarlo Stanton would be traded, with the New York Yankees assuming $265 million of his $295 million contract.
They didn’t seem to mind the trade of All-Star second baseman Dee Gordon to the Seattle Mariners.
Yet when Marcell Ozuna was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals and Christian Yelich last week to the Milwaukee Brewers, the frustration from Marlins fans turned into sheer anger.
“Criticism comes with it, I guess,” Jeter said. “But the bottom line is that we believe in the market, believe that we’re going to be able to turn this thing around.”
It’s just going to take time, Jeter cautions, a lot more time than perhaps anyone envisioned when he decided to join the ownership ranks.
“We needed to make some changes on how things were going,” Jeter said, “and that starts with getting more players in our system and focus on player development. Focus on scouting. And that’s what we’re doing.
“We’ve added 20 some players since last year. If you are going to turn an organization around, the way to do that is with prospects. Once you have those players, you rely on guys like Gary Denbo (Marlins director of player development and scouting) to develop them into players that you see on the field, sooner rather than later.
“Ultimately the baseball fans are there. They want a winner. They’ve been very vocal in that.
“We are using this year to learn as much as we possibly can.”
And he’s already learned that those rosy investment proposals can sour overnight, the one in which he hoped the Marlins attendance would increase this season, with the franchise turning a $60 million profit.
“A lot of the models that became public were a long time ago,” Jeter said. “That was outdated information. The bottom line is that we believe in the market, believe that we’re going to be able to turn this thing around. So I think having optimistic projections, regardless of what other people think about it, I look at it as a positive.
“It’s just going to take some time.” And, yes, a whole lot of thick skin.