Down in Florida, much of this year has been spent trying to figure out who will be running their favorite baseball team. There have been rumors of Jeffrey Loria wanting to sell the team for the majority of this season, and with them have been many, many names thrown about as potential buyers. Everyone from Jeb Bush, Tagg Romney, Tom Glavine and Jorge Mas have been connected to the team at some point. The latter, a local billionaire, seemed like he was set to win the bid, but that didn’t end up working out. On Friday, news came out that a group finally came to an agreement with Loria. That group is headed by Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman and will pay $1.2 billion for the team. The other owners still need to discuss the sale at their meetings next week, but it appears this will happen soon enough.
It’s the start of a new era in Miami
Saturday’s Say Hey, Baseball includes Derek Jeter in Miami, a do-over on the trade deadline and a big injury to an important Cub.
Assuming the sale does go through, it will finally mark the end of the Loria era in Miami. To be fair to the current Marlins owners, there have been some good times for the franchise under his watch. Specifically, the team won two World Series over the last twenty years, something fans of many teams would kill for. The Loria era has been defined by poor decision making and greed, though. From selling off any interesting and useful piece after each World Series win to suing fans of his own team over season ticket concerns, Loria has made rooting for the Marlins a chore at best and an actively miserable experience at worst.
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Now, we begin a new era for South Florida baseball, and there’s every reason to believe that things should change for the better. Although Jeter is only putting up about $25 million of the $1.2 billion total, reports indicate that he’ll be running the show in Miami as the organization’s CEO. Jeter obviously got used to winning as a player, and it would be hard to see him content with the style of management Loria went with for the Marlins. It’s unclear if he’ll want to go with a rebuild to try and build up a consistent winner or try to immediately build around guys like Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich, but it’s safe to say Miami is looking at stability for their baseball team for the first time in a long time.
- We’re now about two weeks removed from the trade deadline. With what they know now, which teams would change their deadline strategy?
- Byron Buxton is unbelievable with the glove.
- The Dodgers are rolling right now and well hey would you look at that Clayton Kershaw’s rehab is going extremely well. Everything’s comin’ up Milhouse in LA.
- Speaking of the Dodgers, everyone do their rivals a favor and stop giving them your good players.
- Baseball fights are lame, stupid, and need to end. The latest evidence for this is that Mike Morse’s career could very well be over because of this year’s fight between the Nationals and Giants.
- Panic set in this week when the Cardinals lost track of the rally cat, but you can relax. The cat has been found and is safe.
- The Cubs received a blow to their roster when Willson Contreras went down, and it looks like he won’t be back until September.
- Speaking of injuries, the Mariners can’t seem to catch a break and now they’ve lost their best pitcher in James Paxton.
- It’s waiver season, and Ian Kinsler was claimed by a mystery team.
- Remember Adrian Beltre’s ejection for moving the on deck circle? Well, now you can always remember that moment with a promotional mouse pad.
- Trevor Cahill was supposed to add some stability to the Royals’ rotation. That has not worked out, and now he’s on the disabled list.
