Derek Jeter's desire to have total control complicates his Marlins bid
Future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter appears to be fighting an uphill battle in his bid to own the Miami Marlins, and that’s been complicated in no small part by his reported desire to run the entire show.
According to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, Jeter has expressed a desire to control everything — both the business and baseball side of the operations. That’s not exactly new news. Those claims were backed up by associates of Jeb Bush, who left Jeter’s group weeks ago after a power struggle.
Of course, there’s also a financial caveat to this as well. According to Jackson’s report, Jeter isn’t putting enough of his own money into the $1.2 billion offer to validate his desired role. Here’s more from the Miami Herald report:
Problem is, Jeter — for all his cache — isn’t bringing enough to the table financially (reportedly $25 million) to necessarily justify running the entire show.
Bush’s people had no issue with Jeter wanting to run baseball operations, but they couldn’t understand why Jeter wanted to oversee the business side.
Jeter has received enough support from investors to keep his group in the hunt, but it’s looking more and more like Miami businessman Jorge Mas has the inside track.
Those flames have been fanned all week by various reports that a Mas deal is getting closer, and that Major League Baseball is fully on board with him buying the Marlins. More fuel was added during Tuesday’s All-Star game when Mas was spotted in the Marlins owner’s box sitting behind current owner Jeffrey Loria.
Mas seems confident enough in his position that he reached out to Jeter and extended an offer to join his group, according to the Herald report. Not surprisingly, Jeter turned it down. But if he does change his mind then some believe that would cement a deal.
Regarding sale of club. Nothing imminent. If somehow Jeter and Mas get together, we could see deal consummated. #Marlins
— Joe Frisaro (@JoeFrisaro) July 15, 2017
With that in mind, perhaps it’s time for Jeter to seriously reconsider his position.
Jeb Bush had no issue with Jeter running the baseball side of things. We’re sure the same could be said for Mas or just about anyone else he could potentially join forces with. By the same token, it’s understandable that those heavily involved in day-to-day business dealings wouldn’t feel comfortable giving that all up.
The sooner Derek Jeter sees that, the better his chances might be to own an MLB team. Otherwise the onus will be on him to put up more money.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
