Jeter’s free agency plan: ‘We must be responsible,’ but if there’s a fit, ‘we’ll go get him’

Derek Jeter spent his Monday at Marlins Park doing what he so often does when he’s out in public somewhere in Miami. He posed for pictures, smiled at adoring fans and, he said, heard positive feedback from the fan base, all as he helped hand out Thanksgiving meals to 1,000 local families at the Miami Marlins’ 10th annual Thanksgiving Distribution.

Jeter has echoed this all throughout the last year, as he has tried to rebuild the Marlins from the ground up following a massive teardown in 2017, soon after he and the current ownership group purchased the team.

“It takes a while to earn people’s trust and it seems like we’ve been here a lot longer than just over two years, but it takes a little time,” Jeter said. “But from everything that we’ve heard, people are starting to trust us and they’re starting to come out here and support this organization, and we still have a lot of work to do.”

After two seasons, Jeter and Co. have rebuilt Miami’s foundation, assembling a young pitching staff and one of the top-ranked farm systems in MLB. There’s still a long-term vision, though, and the Marlins are likely still years away from seriously contending for a World Series.

The current roster, however, is only due about $27 million as currently constructed, after Miami designated pricey pitcher Wei-Yin Chen for assignment Wednesday. The Marlins have money to spend, but they also don’t want to gum up the long-term process with veterans who will steal playing time away from some of their young, promising players.

This offseason, Jeter said, will be a “juggling act.”

“We must be responsible, I think is the best way to put it,” the CEO said. “This is going to be a challenging year for us in terms of we’re going to have to make sure that we’re filling gaps, we’re not blocking the young prospects that we have because we have a lot of them coming and they’re going to be here soon, so we want to make sure that they have that opportunity, but we have to stick with the plan and our plan is to build a system the right way, which we’ve made a lot of progress in two year.

“We have our plan. We’re going to stick to our plan, preach patience — don’t have much — but it’s our job to get better and improve, year in and year out.”

It doesn’t mean the team won’t spend at all, though.

A reporter Monday outside Marlins Park started to ask Jeter what would happen if there was a free agent target the team really liked. Jeter quickly interjected before the question even started to form.

“We’ll go get him,” he said. “If a guy fits with our plan and what we’re trying to do, we’ll go get him. I should say, make an attempt to get him.”

While Jeter didn’t dive into any specific players the team might target, he did say the front office has already had discussions about potential targets.

As important as the actual ability of the player is figuring out how he would fit in with Miami’s timeline. A long-term contract would have to be for a player young enough to be contributing multiple years down the road and a short-term contract would have to be handed out with the awareness some young players might be due for more playing time by the end of the 2020 season.

“We sit down, we have these conversations moving forward, what players we want to to go after. Obviously, it has to be the right fit,” Jeter said. “It has to fit with our long-term plan.”

Offseason grab bag

Jeter is more than just the Marlins’ CEO — he’s still one of the faces of the sport and he’s on the ballot for induction to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for the first time. A lot has gone on across the sport since Jeter last spoke publicly at the end of the 2019 season, so he took the opportunity Monday to weigh in on a variety of hot topics defining this MLB offseason.

▪ On the proposal which would eliminate 42 minor league teams by 2021, including Class A short-season Batavia and Class A Clinton: “I think it’s taking a step back and evaluating the entire system and what’s best for the players throughout the organization. We want the facilities to be top-notch, we want to give our players to develop at a rapid pace and we want to make sure that the conditions are great to help us develop Major League players. From my understanding, there hasn’t really been very many formal conversations, so you hope that it wouldn’t play out publicly, but I think everyone’s sitting back and trying to evaluate what the best avenue is for success in Major League Baseball at the moment.”

▪ On whether he’s surprised by accusations of Houston Astros’ sign stealing: “That’s a good question. I think if you look back in the history of the game, people are always trying to get an advantage. First of all, you’ve got to wait until the investigation is over with to find out what’s true or is not true. I think there’s a lot of rumors that have been out there, so I wait to comment until I know exactly what is the truth, but I think players have always in the past tried to get an edge in some capacity, but there is a certain situation where you may have taken it a little bit too far. Not saying that they have because I don’t know what’s true and what’s not true. It’s an easier question to answer after the investigation.”

▪ On Orlando’s interest in fielding an MLB team: “I’m not focused on Orlando, my friend. I’m focused on building a championship caliber organization here in Miami and that’s what we’ve invested in, our ownership group has invested in. We believe in this community here. My job is to make sure that we put a team on the field we can be proud of.”

▪ On the Miami Hurricanes’ game against the FIU Panthers at Marlins Park: “It’s great. It was awesome to see. You look at the energy that’s in this place when there’s a lot of people and that’s our job is to get more people out to support the baseball team, as well, but a lot of excitement that was here. I’ve heard nothing but great things about fans from FIU and the University of Miami — not so much the result — but that’s the type of atmosphere that we’re looking forward to having here on a daily basis.”