Derek Jeter’s Foray Into Sports Team Ownership Appears To Be A One And Done Experiment

It has been an eventful year for Hall of Fame Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter to say the least.

In March, Jeter stepped down from his chief executive officer perch with the Miami Marlins and gave up his ownership stake five years after he was part of a group that purchased the franchise from Jeffrey Loria for $1.2 billion. The team only made the playoffs once during Jeter’s front office tenure.

Jeter, 48, joined social media platforms Twitter and Instagram this past spring — pulling a 180-degree turn from years of fiercely guarding his privacy — and used those mediums to hype “The Captain,” a seven-part documentary on his life and baseball career. He was honored at Yankee Stadium in September for his Cooperstown induction and Jeter even appeared on Fox’s pre-game telecast alongside former Yankee teammate Alex Rodriguez during the World Series between the Astros and Phillies.

“Really?” Jeter said sarcastically last week when reminded of his busy 2022.

But what comes next for Jeter, at least in a baseball capacity, is yet to be determined, although it sounds as if sports team owner was a one-and-done, cross-off-the-bucket-list experience.

“You got some money for me? I think that answers your question,” said Jeter during Joe Torre’s “Safe at Home” gala at Manhattan’s Gotham Hall last week, when asked if he would ever again explore buying a sports franchise.

“I’m open to a lot of things. But I really don’t know right now,” said Jeter, a father of three young girls, referring to his next baseball endeavor. “I’ve sort of taken a step back here for a few months. But now we’re through the (baseball) season. We’ll see. I love the game. I love the sport. I want to continue to see it grow, get back to where it was when I first came into the game (in 1995), in terms of popularity amongst kids.”

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For years when he was still playing Jeter professed a desire to own a baseball team after he retired. During the middle of his swan song season playing for the Yankees in 2014, Jeter even doubled-down on his future aspirations during one of his Turn 2 Foundation events.

“Yup, that’s the next goal, buddy. Calling the shots, not answering to someone,” Jeter said then, according to a New York Daily News story. But in that same report, Jeter also joked in similar fashion when he was asked if he would ever consider buying the Yankees if the Steinbrenner family put the storied franchise on the block.

New York Daily NewsDerek Jeter serious about becoming owner in life after Yankees

“You got some money for me?” Jeter said during that 2014 Turn 2 event.

When his ownership dream became a reality, however, Jeter soon discovered that building a championship major league club is a lot harder to do from the front office suite than it is as a player on the baseball diamond. The five-time Yankees World Series champion only tasted the postseason once as a Marlins executive — in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season — and his club got swept by the Braves in the division series.

When Jeter parted ways with the franchise earlier this year, his statement was concise but indicated a possible riff with principal owner Bruce Sherman.

“That said, the vision for the future of the franchise is different than the one I signed up to lead,” Jeter’s statement said. “Now is the right time for me to step aside as a new season begins.”

Turns out, Jeter may have also stepped aside from ownership duties for good.