Marlins CEO wants his team to turn the corner in 2020

Marlins CEO Derek Jeter wants more production from his team this season. He wants the Marlins to turn the corner toward success.

After hearing from all the principles who will help lead the Miami Marlins toward what is expected to be a vast improvement over the course of the 2020 season, fans and the media got a chance to hear from team CEO Derek Jeter on Monday.

The “Captain” is once again pushing the notion that this team will be better this year, and should exceed expectations, some of which the other major league teams have expressed about the team in South Florida.

“We need to make progress,” he said via MLB.com. “We need to turn the corner. We have to get better. Guys have to get better. You have to improve. If you’re a young player that’s here in camp trying to make a name for yourself, you’re trying to win a job, and you’re trying to keep a job, you have to get better and you have to produce.”

Production has been something that this team has lacked the previous two seasons under Jeter’s guidance. There is more clarity this year in Spring Training than has been in  the previous two campaigns. There has been a push for more balance on the roster. Preaching patience been the case since the day he and principal owner Bruce Sherman took over the operation of this baseball franchise. Also, the push to make the minor-league system has become more present with each passing day.

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As manager Don Mattingly said prior to the start of spring training, if Miami does not show improvement on the mound, on the diamond, and throughout the roster, it’s going to be a disappointing season. Jeter agrees with that assessment, as he and Michael Hill, the team’s president of baseball operations, has brought in several key veterans to help push this team forward.

“In the past two seasons, the Marlins have taken their lumps after roster overhauls,” Joe Frisaro wrote.“The first two-plus years had a focus of building up a depleted farm system, which now ranks among the better ones in the Majors.”

The changes so far this season has been evident in the first four games the Marlins have played in the Grapefruit League, as young, rising stars have made an impact early and often. And there has been plenty of power to go around.

The addition of veterans that Mattingly will sprinkle throughout the lineup come over brought in to help provide leadership and solid bats in the order. Based on potential productivity, it wouldn’t be surprising if Miami hit somewhere between 200-225 homers this season.

“I think we should be a lot better this year than we were last year,” Jeter said. “We want to see progress as an organization — year-in, year-out. I think we do have a better team, better players. But the bottom line is we still have to go out and perform on the field.“There’s a lot more talent in our organization now. But talent doesn’t win games. You have to perform.”

The Marlins strategy should still remain the same for the coming season and beyond. After strengthening the organization through the minor-league system in the past two seasons, the front office may be more aggressive in free agency in 2021. What is the team does in the MLB draft is key to the continuing growth of young players who will be the face of the franchise two and three years from now.

It appears by what Jeter, Hill, and Mattingly have said, the Marlins are right where they need to be heading into 2020.

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