Derek Jeter surprised the baseball world when he parted ways with the Miami Marlins. However, the reason he reportedly left the team will not shock you.
CC Sabathia was teammates with Jeter on the New York Yankees for six seasons. The former pitcher talked about Jeter’s Miami exit during the latest episode of his “R2C2 with CC Sabathia and Ryan Ruocco” podcast.
Sabathia said Jeter grew frustrated with his fellow Marlins owners for not wanting to spend money. In particular, Jeter wanted Miami to sign Nick Castellanos. The Marlins have been mentioned as a suitor for the star outfielder, but apparently they are not willing to spend the money.
“I know Jeter wanted him bad,” Sabathia said of Castellanos. “The Marlins are the Marlins. No matter what you try to do to make them better, at the end of the day there’s just always been bad ownership. Jeter did everything he could, he lined everything up for him and this is the year you sign Castellanos. They’ve got a bunch of pitching, Jazz Chisholm is a star, you’ve got Miguel Rojas playing short. Seems good, like really good, he built a really good team. The minor league organization is great, but it’s just time to spend money.”
Sabathia added that Jeter badly wanted to win with the Marlins and is “pis-ed” at the way things ended.
That is hardly a surprise. Jeter began overseeing day-to-day operations in Miami at the end of the 2017 season. The Marlins won a Wild Card game in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and lost to the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS. They then took a big step back and went 67-95 last season. Ownership has continued to take full advantage of MLB’s revenue sharing system. The Marlins currently rank 27th in MLB with a total payroll of $55 million, according to Spotrac.
There has been talk that Jeter wanted to leave the Marlins to pursue some better opportunities, but that doesn’t add up. His preference would have been to help turn the Marlins into a winner, otherwise he would not have invested so much time and money into the franchise.
As Sabathia said, the Marlins are still the Marlins. The team seemed to have a long-term plan aimed at rebuilding, but they never transitioned to the mode where they spend money to improve the team.
Photo: Oct 3, 2017; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins chief executive officer Derek Jeter addresses the media at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
