A couple of weeks ago Derek Jeter, then not yet officially the Marlins owner, had outgoing team president David Samson fire Marlins special assistants Jeff Conine, Andre Dawson, Tony Perez and Jack McKeon. He caught a lot of heat for that, just as much for his indirect handling of the situation as for the act of dismissing them itself.
Now, however, he seems to have changed course. Jon Heyman reports:In his first apparent course-reversal in his new high-profile role, new Miami Marlins CEO/part-owner Derek Jeter personally has reached out to the four esteemed Marlins front office members he reportedly ordered fired – Hall of Famers Andre Dawson and Tony Perez, Mr. Marlin Jeff Conine and the Marlins’ octogenarian, World Series-winning manager Jack McKeon – and informed them he didn’t really intend to fire them and that he’d be interested in retaining all four with the team in some unidentified role.
Jeter claims that the whole thing was a misunderstanding, but Heyman walks through it all, clearly talking to one of the four men who was fired, though he doesn’t name his sources, and clearly establishing that Jeter just changed his mind. Whether it was on his own or because he was reacting to the heat it unclear. And now probably doesn’t matter.
