The Miami Marlins will soon be under new ownership. A consortium led by the seemingly odd-couple pairing of Jeb Bush and Derek Jeter were awarded the winning bid for the franchise, as prior owner Jeffrey Loria moves on to a likely ambassadorship to France. (Seriously.)
The winning bid was of course sizable:
Can confirm, per MLB source, that Marlins are moving forward with the Jeb Bush/Jeter group and are optimistic deal will be reached for sale
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) April 25, 2017
More details on Marlins sale,per source:There is agreement in principle, pending MLB approval & contract details.$1.3 billion price for team
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) April 25, 2017
There’s no real way to look at $1.3 billion as a small amount, and Loria is undoubtedly clearing an incredibly tidy profit, as he reportedly purchased the team for $158.5 million back in 2002. Controlling interest in the Mariners went for $1.4 billion last year, and the Dodgers went for $2 billion in 2012. The Marlins are obviously not a prestige franchise, a la the Dodgers, and despite a fairly new stadium, they’ve never drawn well.
That said, it’s also been historically mismanaged under Loria, whose team won a World Series in his first year in charge and then promptly fell off the map; they haven’t made the playoffs since that 2003 championship run. Loria’s Marlins did things like fire a manager who just won NL Manager of the Year. They also demoted (or promoted, depending on your viewpoint) their general manager to the dugout to take over as the team’s manager. Among many other things.
In the wake of that, it’s hard to imagine the new ownership group doing things in a less competent fashion, despite the odd couple of names that have drawn the most attention. It’s hard to fathom Jeb Bush and Derek Jeter spending a lot of time together, but they do both bring a few unique qualities to the table. Jeb’s connections in Florida (indeed, across the country) are well-suited to grease the local wheels for the team (which, of course, could be a major negative for Florida taxpayers, who are still on the hook for a ridiculous amount of money for Loria’s gimmick-filled stadium). The Bush family is also not a stranger to MLB franchise operations; George W. famously ran the Texas Rangers prior to his own political career.
Derek Jeter is Derek Jeter. The baseball media fawn over him, and though you might think this could be a conflict of interest given his involvement in The Players’ Tribune (sarcasm), there isn’t a friendlier (or more famous) face to use as a franchise figurehead.
The new deal still has to be approved by the league’s owners, but that’s seemingly a formality at this point. Will the Marlins be better off? By default, sure, they will. Whether or not the new owners can figure out a way to get people to come watch baseball games in Miami in the summertime, though, remains to be seen.
Putting a good team on the field is a start, though, and Jeffrey Loria never seemed to know how to do that.
