Miami Marlins CEO and former New York Yankees former shortstop Derek Jeter spoke about the state of the team with reporters, sharing his unhappiness regarding the Marlins' performance among other things. Entering Friday, the Marlins had the worst record in baseball at 9-21.
"I'm not happy," Jeter said. "[President of baseball operations] Michael Hill's not happy. [Don Mattingly's] not happy. I'm sure the players are not happy. I think everyone knows we're better than this. There shouldn't be a person in this building that's happy with how we're playing."
One day after Jeter fired the president of business operations Chip Bowers, he told the media that the change had to do with the team's overall business strategy. Bowers joined the Marlins just 14 months ago after serving as the Golden State Warriors' chief marketing officer.
"It was a decision we didn't make lightly or spontaneously," Jeter said. "There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes. We have an ownership group that has a lot of high expectations and at times we move at a challenging pace. This has to do with our overall business strategy, accountability and we felt as though a change was needed in the leadership group."
Miami's home games have drawn a league-worst average of less than 10,000 people so far this season. In 2018, the Marlins finished last in attendance.
"Yeah, we'd love to see more people here," Jeter said. "But we're working hard on gaining the trust of our fan base."
The ownership group that includes Jeter and New York venture capitalist Bruce Sherman purchased the team nearly three years ago. According to Forbes' most recent MLB valuations, Miami is currently valued at $1 billion -- last in the league.
