Derek Jeter: Marlins still wouldn’t have been successful if club had signed Jake Arrieta, Yu Darvish

By Feb 9, 2018, 12:38 AM EST
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On Wednesday, Tom Verducci published a feature on Sports Illustrated centered around Marlins part owner Derek Jeter. Jeter has been a lightning rod for criticism since he and Bruce Sherman purchased the Marlins from Jeffrey Loria. Along with trading away Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, Christian Yelich, and Dee Gordon, Jeter has had a hand in giving Jack McKeon, Jeff Conine, and Andre Dawson the pink slip. Jeter was also involved in the firing of a scout who was receiving treatment for colon cancer.

Verducci mentions the myriad controversies but they are quickly brushed aside with a Jeter quote, usually condescending in nature. For example, Verducci wonders if the Marlins might have been competitive had the club kept Stanton et. al. instead of trading them, and went out and signed free agent starters Jake Arrieta and Yu Darvish. Jeter said, “When we were at the town hall, one of the fans said, ‘All you needed to do was sign to pitchers.’ I said, ‘Okay, who are those two pitchers?’ He couldn’t answer. You could have added two pitchers to this team and they still wouldn’t have won.” Verducci suggests Arrieta and Darvish, to which Jeter responds, “No. They still wouldn’t have won. So you just dig a bigger hole, and eventually you have to get out of it. That’s a lot of work.”

Eno Sarris of FanGraphs countered Jeter’s claim quite well:

Sarris added to his response, “Even if you’re being more conservative and just give them 14 or 15 wins, they’re above .500.” Presently, FanGraphs projects the Marlins to put up the second-worst record in baseball at 68-94, just ahead of the 65-97 White Sox.

The NL East doesn’t seem like it be highly competitive. FanGraphs projects the Nationals at 91-71, the Mets at 81-81, the Braves at 75-87, and the Phillies at 74-88. With 57 games scheduled against intradivision opponents projected to be .500 or worse, the Marlins would’ve been legitimate Wild Card contenders at minimum if the club had signed a pair of free agent pitchers. And they need not be Arrieta and Darvish specifically; Alex Cobb and Lance Lynn would have sufficed as well.

As Verducci notes, Jeter and Sherman assumed $400 million in debt in acquiring the Marlins. Winning games is incidental to keeping the organization in the black, especially in this case. Jeter’s Marlins are the prime example of what’s wrong in baseball right now and why the free agent market was completely stagnant between the end of the World Series and now, just a few days away from pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training.

There are a lot of other mystifying quotes from Jeter in Verducci’s column, but his claim that the Marlins wouldn’t have been competitive with the likes of Arrieta and Darvish really sticks out. Jeter’s squeaky clean image has certainly taken a hit in the last few months, that’s for sure.

Rich Hill keeps Cardinals off balance into 7th, Pirates complete three-game sweep with 2-1 victory

Associated PressJun 4, 2023, 5:40 PM EDT
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PITTSBURGH – When he’s on, Rich Hill‘s pitches still dance. They still dart. They go this way. Then that way. They can baffle hitters with their movement, particularly the ones that don’t come close to breaking the speed limit on most interstates.

In a game that seems to get faster each year, Hill is a throwback. A survivor. At 43 and 19 years into a career he figured would have been over long ago, the well-traveled left-hander knows he’s essentially playing on borrowed time.

Hill is in Pittsburgh to show a young staff how to be a pro while occasionally showing the kids he can still bring it. That example was on display in a 2-1 victory over St. Louis on Sunday that gave Pittsburgh a three-game sweep of its longtime NL Central nemesis.

Knowing the bullpen needed a bit of a break, Hill (5-5) kept the Cardinals off balance for 6 2/3 innings, expertly weaving in and out of trouble with a series of curveballs that hover around 70 mph offset by a fastball that can touch 90 mph but plays up because everything else comes in so much softer.

Hill walked three and struck out six while giving up just one run, a seventh-inning homer by Andrew Knizner that drew the Cardinals within one. He allowed the leadoff hitter to reach in the first four innings and stranded them all as the Pirates pushed their winning streak to five.

“He threw the pitches he wanted to throw,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “They didn’t swing at them. The fact that he’s able to just bounce back and continue to execute shows how savvy he is as a veteran.”

Ji Hwan Bae‘s two-run single off Miles Mikolas (4-2) in the first provided all the offense Hill would need as Pittsburgh swept St. Louis for the first time in five years. Ke'Bryan Hayes singled three times and is hitting .562 (9 for 16) over his last four games after a 3-for-32 funk dropped him to seventh in the batting order.

David Bednar worked the ninth for his 13th save and third in as many days, striking out Knizner with a 98 mph fastball that provided an exclamation point to three days of tight, meaningful baseball, the kind the Pirates haven’t played much of for the better part of a decade.

“We know we have a very good team,” Hill said. “We’ve had meetings in here and we talk about it and reinforce it and just continue to go out there and give that effort every single night and understand that (if) we continue to put in the work, it’ll start to show every night on the field.”

Tommy Edman had two hits for the Cardinals, and designated hitter Luken Baker picked up the first two hits of his career after being called up from Triple-A Memphis early Sunday.

The middle of the St. Louis lineup – Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Gorman and Nolan Arenado – went a combined 0 for 11 as St. Louis lost for the fifth time in six games. The Cardinals left 27 men on base at PNC Park over the weekend to fall back into last place in one of the weakest divisions in the majors.

It’s a division the Pirates – coming off back-to-back 100-loss seasons – are managing to hang around the top of for a solid two months. The bullpen has evolved into a strength, with Bednar at the back end and a series of flashy hard throwers like Dauri Moreta in the middle.

Moreta came on for Hill with two outs in the seventh and struck out Goldschmidt with the tying run at first while Hill was in the dugout accepting high-fives, already thinking about his next start, likely on Saturday against the New York Mets. It’s a mindset that has kept Hill around for far longer than he ever imagined.

“Every time he picks up a baseball, I know he feels blessed to be able to continue to throw baseballs for a living,” Pirates catcher Austin Hedges said. “I think that’s one of the best things he can teach our young guys.”

UP NEXT

Cardinals: Continue a six-game road trip in Texas against the Rangers on Monday. Adam Wainwright (2-1, 6.15 ERA) faces Martín Pérez (6-1, 4.43 ERA) in the opener.

Pirates: A season-long nine-game homestand continues on Monday when lowly Oakland visits. Johan Oviedo (3-4, 4.50 ERA) gets the start against JP Sears (0-3, 4.37 ERA).