Miami Marlins: Minutes from the Derek Jeter press conference

The Miami Marlins officially welcomed Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman as principle owners. The duo was candid while avoiding any specifics.

The Miami Marlins have new owners. Hooray! Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman sat down for a press conference to field questions from local Miami reporters at Marlins Park on Tuesday. They covered a wide range of questions over 26-minutes, then posed for photos.

The pressing questions pertained to personnel and roster moves. Jeter deftly side-stepped these by saying he’d yet to speak to President of Baseball Operations Michael Hill. They uttered the refrain “it’s only day one” with regularity when pushed on any particular subject.

The Miami Marlins fanbase didn’t learn anything concrete from a mostly introductory press conference.

Jeter was asked several times, in several different ways what he planned to do with the roster. Media and baseball analysts have speculated for months whether the team would opt to rebuild or “tear down” the existing team.

Jeter said a rebuild was definitely on the way, but that he didn’t like the word “tear down”. He gave the impression that he was there to rebuild the entire franchise, citing a need to “engage the community” on several occasions.

“Unpopular decisions” could be on the way. He was mum on any specific player, but the impression following the presser is that there will be a lot of new Miami Marlins next season. With saying it explicitly, it appears that Jeter will retain manager Don Mattingly.

Tidbits and ends

Some of the more light-hearted questions included the future of the home run sculpture, and the logo and design of the team. “It’s only day one”, the duo repeated again.

Jeter commented on how wildly reported the sale was throughout. He addressed several reports that suggested his investment group didn’t have enough money to complete the sale: “I think that angered a lot of our investors because they have plenty of money. Well, not anymore”, he joked.

He claims he hasn’t discussed the future of the statue at any time. Bruce Sherman went so far as to say everybody in the ownership group has an opinion on the statue.

Community engagement was the theme of the entire press conference, though. With poor attendance numbers and a disinterested fanbase, it appears to be their first point of focus as owners.

Next: Miami Marlins offseason day one: Conjecture control

It might be a tall order if their first move is to trade off the few star players the team has. Giancarlo Stanton is the obvious elephant in the room. On Sunday, he stated explicitly that he wouldn’t be willing to go through a rebuild.