Advertisement

Derek Jeter and Jeb Bush-led group reportedly wins bidding for Miami Marlins

 
Today came reports that the Jeb Bush/Derek Jeter group had been tabbed to buy the Marlins from Jeffrey Loria. Bloomberg News first reported the sale, and the Miami Herald later reported the purchase price to be $1.3 billion. [AP photo]
Today came reports that the Jeb Bush/Derek Jeter group had been tabbed to buy the Marlins from Jeffrey Loria. Bloomberg News first reported the sale, and the Miami Herald later reported the purchase price to be $1.3 billion. [AP photo]
Published April 25, 2017

In consolidating their efforts earlier this month to purchase the Miami Marlins, Jeb Bush and Derek Jeter made for the ultimate political pairing - one titan of actual politics and one of baseball politics, the former governor of Florida and the most recognizable face in the game. The fact Bush was now a failed Republican presidential candidate and Jeter a retired player hardly mattered. If they could come up with the money, they were the frontrunners to land the Marlins.

On Tuesday came reports that the Bush/Jeter group, indeed, had been tabbed to buy the Marlins from Jeffrey Loria. Bloomberg News first reported the sale, and the Miami Herald later reported the purchase price to be $1.3 billion. Most of the details, including, crucially, the identity of Bush and Jeter's investors, remain unknown.

The sale would not be finalized until it is approved by Major League Baseball, a process that could take weeks. But assuming the financing is there, approval would not appear to be a major hurdle for Bush and Jeter, given their connections.

If the reports are true, Bush and Jeter would have won the bidding over at least two other groups, one of which included Tagg Romney, son of 2012 Republic Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and Hall-of-Fame pitcher Tom Glavine.

For Jeter, 42, the purchase of the Marlins would represent the culmination of a process began well before his playing days with the New York Yankees were over. For at least a decade, he has said he had designs on owning a team after he retired, and we can presume those plans accelerated following his retirement at the end of the 2014 season.

If the sale price of $1.3 billion is correct, it would represent an astronomical profit for Loria, who turned an initial $12 million investment into the Montreal Expos into ownership of the Marlins, which he purchased for $158 million in 2002. Under Loria, the Marlins won the World Series in 2003, and in 2012 they opened Marlins Park, a $634 million stadium that was funded largely by the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County, and that will host the MLB All-Star Game this July.

According to the Herald, Bush, 64, would be the new ownership group's point person. The son of President of George H.W. Bush and the brother of President George W. Bush - who is also the former owner of the Texas Rangers - Bush served as Florida's governor from 1999 to 2007 and resides in Coral Gables, outside of Miami.