Derek Jeter or Pitbull probably won’t become the next Marlins owners

After months of speculation about who would step forward and usher the Miami Marlins into the realm of profitability (maybe) and fun (hopefully) again, it’s beginning to look more and more certain that the buyer won’t be a beloved ex-player like Derek Jeter or a local success story like Pitbull, but a regular old billionaire who wants to own a baseball team.

During the All-Star Game on Tuesday night, as the game dragged on without much fanfare, a scene was unfolding in the good seats as the team’s current owner Jeffrey Loria seemingly passed the torch to potential future owner Jorge Mas. Mas, founder of Florida-based engineering company MasTec, reportedly bid $1.17 billion for the team and Loria agreed to that price despite it being a few hundred million below his original asking price of $1.3 billion.

While a two-thirds majority of MLB owners still has to approve the sale, the two men chatting and laughing during the game certainly seems to confirm that this bid is the winning offer and the other hopeful groups came up short in their attempts.

As recently as Monday, a group that involved both Derek Jeter and Michael Jordan bid as much as $1.2 billion for the team and reports had them extremely close to sealing things that night. However the situation was also deemed “fluid” in those reports and, in this case, it seems “fluid” means lol sorry guys you are definitely not getting this team even though you bid more and are famous. This latest development also rules out the bid from a group involving Pitbull winning the day either, which thankfully also means that Tagg Romney won’t own a baseball team ... yet.

In an age where ownership groups are now consistently joining up with celebrities and retired players to offer a bit of flash to their offers, Mas beating out Jeter, Michael Jordan, and Pitbull is a rarer event than it would have been even a decade ago. He’s not even a fun, famous billionaire like Steve Ballmer who was recognizable as the CEO of Microsoft before purchasing a pro sports team. Mas is just your regular old billionaire who wants to own a sports team and is going to own it straight up without the complications of a huge ownership group or a celebrity being a minor owner and pulling away the spotlight.

Which, in the case of the Marlins and their never-ending struggle for relevancy and profitability, may be just what the doctor ordered.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred wanted this deal to be over and done with before All-Star Weekend took place, presumably so he could spend the weekend touting this latest win for the league rather than just waxing poetic about expansion to the press. But a businessman who is not Jeffrey Loria and will pay this much money for a struggling team is just as much of a win for the league even if the timing didn’t fall into place as they’d hoped.

Interestingly, team President David Samson might be angling to stay with the organization after this sale goes through. While he’s partially been able to hide behind the immense fan dislike of controversial owner Loria, supporters aren’t exactly crazy about Samson’s business decisions in recent times either. It might be best for everyone involved to start this new era with a clean slate in the front office after years of losing money and an angry fan base, but that’s a conversation that can wait until the ink is dry on this sale.