Last week, Derek Jeter stepped down as the CEO of the Miami Marlins, leading to speculation about his unhappiness with the organization and the state of the industry. Now, his former New York Yankees teammate CC Sabathia is dishing on why he did so.
Sabathia discussed Jeter's departure with Ryan Ruocco as part of the latest episode of their "R2C2" podcast. During said episode, Sabathia indicated that Jeter was frustrated by owner Bruce Sherman's unwillingness to spend money, specifically on outfielder Nick Castellanos, the 14th best free agent available this winter as ranked by CBS Sports.
"The Marlins are the Marlins," Sabathia said, according to Audacy. "No matter what you try to do to make them better, at the end of the day there's just always been bad ownership. Jeter did everything he could, he lined everything up for him and this is the year you sign Castellanos. They've got a bunch of pitching, Jazz Chisholm is a star, you've got Miguel Rojas playing short. Seems good, like really good, he built a really good team. The minor league organization is great, but it's just time to spend money."
Jeter had hinted that he disagreed with Sherman on certain matters as part of his parting statement: "[The] vision for the future of the franchise is different than the one I signed up to lead. Now is the right time for me to step aside as a new season begins."
The Marlins had made a five-year offer to Castellanos prior to the lockout, per MLB Network's Jon Heyman. It's unclear if the owner-imposed lockout caused Sherman to shift gears, or if he was never on board with Jeter's plan to begin with.
Either way, the Marlins had been fairly active prior to the lockout. In addition to signing outfielder Avisaíl García, Miami also traded for infielder Joey Wendle and catcher Jacob Stallings. The Marlins are projected to have an Opening Day payroll around $65 million, according to Cot's Contracts. That's lower than in either 2018 or 2019, Sherman's first two seasons at the helm.
