Derek Jeter left Marlins over $15 million promise, power struggle
To be around the dynastic Yankees was to know they had talent. But they had more — something that steeled them and inflated their confidence and kept them hungry even as they were recording great achievements.
Derek Jeter was the engine for that. He had fortitude and unrelenting confidence, but it was that hunger to win. No, more than that. This belief that he would never begin a game, a season or a postseason thinking anything but that his team would win became the DNA of a whole clubhouse.
So for Jeter to walk away from what was his second dream after being the Yankees’ shortstop — to own a team — screams about his lost belief that the Marlins were committed to win.
Jeter understood the path to sustained winning in Miami would involve painful and unpopular decisions and years of not winning. But he thought it could be done by Year 5 of a five-year contract that had made him the first and still only black chief executive of a major league team. But before Year 5 even began, Jeter unleashed a bombshell Monday that he was stepping down and also divesting from his roughly 4 percent ownership of the club.
Among the issues, sources say, is that Jeter went into the lockout believing team chairman Bruce Sherman had approved the spending of another $10 million to $15 million on player(s) whenever transactions begin again. And that plan was reversed, in Jeter’s understanding. Jeter did not only see that as reneging on a promise, but as a statement against the buildup to try to win — and Jeter was biding the bad times to satisfy his passion to ultimately win.
Jeter issued a three-paragraph statement that was standard vanilla at top and bottom, but in the middle, his true feelings resounded: “The vision for the future of the franchise is different than the one I signed up to lead. Now is the right time for me to step aside as a new season begins.”
The symbolism of Jeter making the statement was hard to ignore for a former star player and now departing minority owner of a team. It came at roughly the same time MLB and the players were beginning negotiations Monday, which was commissioner Rob Manfred’s imposed deadline for canceling regular-season games unless there was an agreement. The talks were being held at Roger Dean Stadium, the spring training home the Marlins share with the Cardinals.
Jeter, the father of three young daughters, did not make his future plans publicly known, though friends believe he will take a period of reflection to see what next is possible after going so quickly from the field to the front office with little break in between.
There is nothing in Jeter’s four-plus-year term to suggest he was as gifted at being the face, brains and soul of an organization in the way that he was near instantly as the 21-year-old shortstop of the Yankees.
His tenure will be marked by good and bad, and it is possible that the most vital act Jeter orchestrated for the Marlins was redirecting most of Giancarlo Stanton’s contract off of Miami’s books and onto the Yankees’. In real time in the offseason after the 2017 campaign, Jeter was condemned for dealing away the reigning NL MVP. But it gave the Marlins at least greater financial wiggle room than would have existed.
And this offseason, before the lockout, the Marlins signed outfielder Avisail Garcia to a four-year, $53 million pact — the longest commitment to a free agent by the Marlins since Sherman bought the team and installed Jeter as the chief executive officer. Miami also gave ace Sandy Alcantara a five-year, $56 million extension. The team additionally traded for catcher Jacob Stallings and third baseman Joey Wendle.
This was supposed to be the beginning of this organization building the talent base and payroll around a talented nucleus of young starters. Yet between then and Monday’s shocking announcement, Jeter decided to exit, with the next moves now murkier.
Jeter ran the day-to-day baseball and business operations of an organization that, executives from other clubs say, was beset by needs for money calls and infighting. Sherman was said not to be pleased by both the business direction of the club and that there was ego in play here — that Sherman was the main money man, yet was obscured by Jeter as the face of the franchise.
The infighting mainly surrounded Jeter’s handpicked vice president of player development and scouting, Gary Denbo. Jeter is nothing if not extremely loyal. And Denbo had been his hitting Sherpa from the minor leagues throughout his Yankees career.
But Denbo has proven polarizing within the Marlins walls. Jeter also hired the first-ever female general manager, Kim Ng. And outside sources say it had become unclear who had the ultimate authority to make a baseball recommendation to ownership — Denbo or Ng? In an internal conference call with select department heads Monday before Jeter’s announcement went public, Sherman explained Jeter’s departure. The belief is that without Jeter present, Denbo will stay, but Ng’s decision-making voice will become more dominant.
There also is belief in the industry that there are multiple business people in Miami willing to buy the team if Sherman sells, which Sherman has not publicly indicated is a possibility.
“We have a deep bench of talent that will oversee both business and baseball decisions while we work to identify a new CEO to lead our franchise,” Sherman said in a statement. “The ownership group is committed to keep investing in the future of the franchise — and we are determined to build a team that will return to the postseason and excite Marlins fans and the local community.”
Of course, five years ago, what was supposed to stimulate postseason talk and excite Marlins fans was the presence of Jeter. On Monday, apparently concerned about a clear path to winning, Jeter exited.
