New York Yankee “Captain” May Have Led Miami Marlins To Ruin

New York and Florida have always seemed to have a strong connection, especially amongst part-time residents of each state. When New York Yankees Hall of Fame shortstop, Derek Jeter became a part-owner and CEO of the Miami Marlins franchise, many thought that connection was perfect for the struggling franchise waiting to take off with new ownership. Many, including myself, were wrong about that.

Marlins owner Bruce Sherman and Jeter parted ways in March. The Miami baseball owner purchased the franchise for $1.2 billion in August of 2017. Jeter and Michael Jordan were amongst the original ownership group. According to Forbes.com, the Marlins franchise made $25 million in 2021 but the overall franchise value has gone down to $990 million since the Captain took the reins as CEO.

As listed on Forbes.com, nearly every franchise across Major League Baseball, except for, of course, Peter Angelos' Baltimore Orioles, enjoyed double-digit valuation gains since 2017, the Jeter led franchise value went down over 18%, the greatest devaluation in MLB. According to John Heyman of nypost.com, some of Jeter's cosmetic decisions may have been at the root of some of their losses. Jeter spent "$3.5 million to remove the Miami-cool Red Grooms homer sculpture from inside the ballpark." Maybe not a great move when a team is hemorrhaging money.

Get our free mobile app

To give you some perspective, even the Pittsburgh Pirates had a doubled-digit franchise valuation increase since 2017. The New York Yankees had a 33% increase in value over that time period. The Bombers franchise went from $4 billion to $6 billion, as Bruce Sherman watched his Hall of Fame shortstop CEO lead his franchise in the wrong direction.

Jeter spit from the Miami Marlins in early March with little-to-no explanation of why. Some felt that it was Bruce Sherman's reluctance to spend more money on players. If I owned a franchise that wasn't winning games, wasn't drawing crowds and wasn't among the 28 out of 30 teams that increased in value over the last 5 years, a new CEO would be in place for the coming season. That's business.

According to John Heyman, Jeter's old nemesis Alex Rodriguez may be interested in purchasing his hometown MLB franchise, if Bruce Sherman and his ownership group decide to sell. Wow, can you imagine if A-Rod buys the Marlins and they start making money. That would add a little fuel to the fun-to-watch cool feuding duo.