The Miami Marlins did not meet Derek Jeter's expectations this season, and the CEO expects a busy winter in an attempt to turn the club around.
"I expect this offseason to be active for us, whether that's talking with free agents or exploring some other moves," Jeter said, according to The Associated Press' Tim Reynolds. "But for the first time, really since we've been here as an ownership group, I expect to be pretty active - or I should say, have active conversations. There's two sides to it."
The Marlins have been one of baseball's worst teams since Jeter purchased an ownership stake in the franchise and joined the front office in 2017.
Miami enters Sunday with a 66-95 record. Even if the Marlins defeat the Philadelphia Phillies in their final contest of the 2021 campaign, they would finish with a losing record in 11 of the past 12 seasons. The only exception was in 2020 when the club surprisingly advanced to the playoffs, beating the Chicago Cubs in the National League wild-card series before being swept by the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS.
While last year might be considered an anomaly due to the shortened campaign and expanded postseason, Jeter explained that no one on the Marlins thought of it that way, and the organization anticipated similar results this year.
"No one's happy. No one should be happy," the Hall of Famer said. "Especially the players, coming off what they were able to accomplish last year, getting a taste in the postseason.
"I think the expectations were a little bit higher coming into this year. Anytime you go through a season like this, you have to sit down, you have to evaluate, reevaluate, and see how we're going to get better in the offseason for next year."