Did Derek Jeter Leave the Marlins Because Ownership Wouldn’t Let Him Land Nick Castellanos?

When he abruptly left the Miami Marlins two weeks ago, Derek Jeter indicated that a disagreement about the “vision for the future of the franchise” was at the heart of the separation. The organization was no longer the one for which he signed up to be president. In other words, since it’s the Marlins, we could all pretty easily surmise that financials were at the heart of this thing.

Today, Jeter’s former teammate CC Sabathia laid it out on his podcast, and he didn’t hold back on the particulars of what happened between Jeter and the Marlins. With the relationship having started to go south a year ago, Sabathia suggested that a planned pursuit of Nick Castellanos was the final straw:

“(Castellanos is) a beast,” Sabathia said. “I know Jeter wanted him bad.

“The Marlins are the Marlins,” the ex-pitcher added. “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.

“I just feel bad for him because I know how much time he put into that and how serious he took that job and I know he’s pissed. Yeah, it sucks, but the Marlins are the Marlins.”

If Sabathia is right, then it must’ve been the case that Jeter put in a lot of legwork early in the offseason to try to land Castellanos – there were definitely plenty of rumors – and then it became clear he wasn’t going to be permitted to pull off the signing sometime during the lockout. And that was enough, and Jeter decided it was time to go. It’s certainly believable (Jon Heyman suggests it’s true, too).

Meanwhile, I guess this takes the Marlins out of the market for Castellanos, and maybe other notable players as well? It’s a shame for their fans, because that young core *is* ready to compete. But, as Sabathia rightly put it, the Marlins are the Marlins.

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Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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