Jeter noncommittal on Mattingly’s future as manager

MIAMI (AP) — His club seemingly headed to a second consecutive last-place finish in the NL East, Miami Marlins CEO Derek Jeter isn’t ready to disclose whether manager Don Mattingly will return next season.

“There hasn’t been a decision yet,” Jeter said before Miami hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night. “To be honest with you, we’ve been so focused on the trade deadline and see what we could do with it.”

“At the end of every year, we sit down and evaluate all members of the organization, whether it’s the manager, coaches, player development, scouting, front office,” he said.

Mattingly is in the final year of a four-year contract. The former Dodgers manager was hired by ex-owner Jeffrey Loria prior to the 2016 season.

On the one hand, Jeter clearly isn’t the loyal sort- but, on the other hand, he seems to be running out of people willing to serve as henchmen….

SI.com: Baseball Hall of Fame Inductions Are Heading for a Bleak Period

There’s a chance, then, that 2021 could be another one-man BBWAA class, this time in the person of Schilling. Bonds and Clemens have an outside chance of joining him, but the better bet that year is Omar Vizquel, who has steadily climbed since debuting on the ballot in 2018 and finished with 42.8% of the vote last year. A relatively uncontroversial candidate, Vizquel is a favorite among the older crowd, earning more votes on private ballots than those publicly released, and has an easy hook as one of the best defensive shortstops of all time.

Baseball Hall of Famers considering boycotting Derek Jeter’s induction

Derek Jeter didn’t make many enemies while playing shortstop for the New York Yankees for 20 seasons.

It’s been a much different story in his less than two years as the leader of the Miami Marlins ownership group.

Since taking over the team in 2017, Jeter has garnered animosity through many of his business and baseball-related decisions. And one of those decisions may lead to two Baseball Hall of Famers boycotting Jeter’s surefire induction during the summer of 2020.

Those two men are Andre Dawson and Tony Perez. Both were part of a group of special assistants, along with Marlins legends Jack McKeon and Jeff Conine, that were unceremoniously fired during Jeter’s first round of house cleaning. And both are still harboring ill-will over how the situation was handled.

On the bright side, this sort of thing might swing a few BBWAA voters to not include Jeter on their ballot, and injuring his ego like that is a wonderful thing….

Rosenthal: Derek Jeter’s right-hand man is tearing up a franchise and creating enemies along the way – The Athletic

He wanted the dogs out of the clubhouse. No, it was worse than that. Gary Denbo, the Marlins’ vice president of player development and scouting, could not tolerate the dogs, who had been a popular part of the Greensboro Grasshoppers’ scene since August 2006, fetching bats, carrying buckets of balls to the plate umpire, running the bases after every game.

The dogs are such a phenomenon that the bucket of the late Miss Babe Ruth, a Labrador Retriever who once worked 638 consecutive home games, is on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. But Denbo, making an unannounced visit to the Marlins’ Low-A affiliate in June 2018, was not interested in upholding tradition. He took one look at the two dog kennels in the clubhouse and demanded that they be removed, berating a clubhouse attendant, a longtime employee of the team who is in his 50s.

The exchange was the breaking point in the Marlins’ 16-year relationship with Greensboro, according to the team’s president and general manager, Donald Moore, who said he simply could not work with Denbo. Moore subsequently made a deal with the Pirates’ organization, and the Marlins settled for a much less advantageous affiliation in Clinton, Iowa, where the ballpark is considered outdated and remote.

At 9-24, Marlins could be headed for worst season yet

MIAMI (AP) — Derek Jeter says the Miami Marlins are better than this.

If he’s wrong, the woebegone franchise is headed for its worst season yet.

The Marlins began the week with the worst record in the majors at 9-24 (.274), which put them on pace to finish 44-118. That’s bad, even for a franchise that hasn’t had a winning season since 2009 and hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2003.

Manager Don Mattingly said he tells his players to stay positive, but “it’s hard to say everything is great when you’re 9-and-whatever,” he said. “I don’t even know what we are. I know it’s not very good. It’s not a great feeling.”

An article considering just how low the Marlins can go….

Marlins CEO Jeter says he’s unhappy with team’s awful start

MIAMI (AP) — Derek Jeter says the Miami Marlins’ performance, attendance and business operations have been a problem.

Shadows at Marlins Park don’t bother him, however.

Speaking to the media Friday for the first time since the season began, Jeter said he’s unhappy with the team’s awful start and confirmed a recent shake-up on the organization’s business side.

However, the Marlins CEO and former New York Yankees shortstop shrugged off complaints by the Washington Nationals that visibility was dangerously poor at a recent 1 p.m. game at Marlins Park with the retractable roof open.

Strange- I always thought narcissists owned lots of mirrors….