Contrary to a report from February stating that Marlins Jeffrey Loria had a “handshake agreement” to sell the franchise to New York-based real estate developer Joshua Kushner, he hasn’t yet reached a deal with anyone, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. However, Loria is ready to move on from baseball and poised to part with the team sometime this year, reports Jackson.
Loria is currently in discussions with four groups, both from Miami and elsewhere, about selling the Marlins and has also had talks with two others. Major League Baseball knows the identities of the potential buyers, Jackson adds.
Based on prior reports, it seems the Marlins could sell from between $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion, which would be quite a boon for the much-maligned Loria. Now 76, Loria bought the franchise for a relatively meager $158MM in 2002. The Marlins won their second World Series a year later, but they haven’t made the playoffs since and Loria has come under fire for, among other things, his reluctance to spend to improve the on-field product and the opening of a $634MM, taxpayer-funded stadium in 2012. Loria did sign outfielder Giancarlo Stanton to a $325MM contract in 2014, but he’d escape the remaining $309.5MM on the pact by selling the Marlins.
Should Loria leave baseball behind, he could become the United States ambassador to France under President Donald Trump, who’s the father-in-law of Jared Kushner, Joshua’s brother. The Kushner group issued a statement last month saying it wouldn’t pursue a purchase of the Marlins if Trump appoints Loria to that post. Regardless of whether that proves true, it does appear the Marlins will soon change hands.
Christmas isn’t until December though
dude you’re a phillies fan
Third worst owner in sports behind Vivek Ranadive and James Dolan
I don’t know much about those guys, but Loria made people think he was gonna try to win by signing a bunch of big name FAs, in order to get a new stadium, then traded everyone a year later. Hard to top stealing tax money..
Not to mention they wheeled out a deteriorating Ali to open the stadium and use him as a show pony. Lost all respect for that club when they did that. Just like I lost respect for the NFL when they wheeled out GH Bush for the Super Bowl. I mean it’s probably cool for them because they don’t realize what’s going on.
I’d think Marge Schott and her praise of Hitler should get her a high spot on that list.
Eugene melnyk would give each of those a run for their money
At least Dolan spends money, its just that he know anything about running a sports franchise. But at least he tries.
Meant to say he doesn’t know anything about running a sports franchise.
The Rangers though.
cxcx I’m a Ranger and Knicks fan . (Dolan owns both teams)
James Dolan is an incompetent buffoon. The only reason the NY Rangers are successful is because Dolan doesn’t give a **** about hockey. He couldn’t care less for the sport and is mostly hands off letting the hockey people do their jobs. I remember hearing a rare James Dolan interview on 98.7 a year or so ago on ESPN radio. I say rare because The man despises the media and tries to avoid the spotlight whenever possible. Anyways, he was discussing the NY Rangers in a Michael Kay interview. He referred to Henrik Lundqvist , the heart, soul, ‘Derek Jeter’ of that team as “that goalie, his name eludes me, Sorry I forgot his name)” It was pathetic. How could you not know the name of one of the most important Rangers in history, HOFer, and one of the best goalies of all time whose played on your team for more than 10 years! Rangers are good because Dolan doesn’t give two **** about hockey. Ironically his lack of interest in hockey, is the reason for the Rangers success.
Whether or not he knows Lundqvist’s name now, your guess is as good as mine.
And hockey’s my least favorite out of the 4 major sports! (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL)
The late Charlie O. Finley would need to top the list of worst sports owners.
As bad as a rap that Charlie O Finley has, he’s not as bad as he’s portrayed as, He made his fortune by being the first to sell medical insurance. He bought the Athletics in 1960. Prior to that, The Yankees owned interests in the Athletic franchise and treated it as a De facto farm club for their 1950’s dynasty. Finley set about to rebuild the A’s by first, refusing to deal with the Yankees; he almost never made a bad trade. Finley was hard to deal with but, he dumped his spendable fortune into the A’s and created a dynasty. Overall, Finley was good for Baseball.
Loria sells art and ruined two franchises. He has no interest in making Baseball better.
He’s definitely worse than Dolan. Dolans an idiot but at least he legitimately tries. Loria is blatantly scamming MLB and whatever county Miami is in.
Dade
Agree
As ambassador he would be able to defer capital gains tax on the sale indefinitely. That could drop his asking price. But Kushner said they would not pursue a deal in that case so no apparent conflict of interest.
Will the Marlins trade pick 36 for a player that will help them now?
That would seem like a logical next step.
You can’t trade picks in MLB.
You can trade competitive balance picks, and considering there are less than 36 teams, that must be one. Why can’t you trade other picks anyway? That rule is stupid. So are bonus slots. Scale them like other major sports leagues. Jack up the minimum to 700k so the players don’t complain.
You can trade comp picks, which the 36th pick is.
congrats miami
Good riddance.
Loria did such a great job with the marlins, clearly promoting him to work for the federal government is the next logical step…..Seriously?
Par for the course for bureaucracy though, wouldn’t you say?
If you look at it from a Loira business prospective, he has done fantastic
He got out from the Expos with a nice MLB loan. Got a team in what could be a prime location, and now he is going to sell said team for what should be a billion dollar profit..
If you mean look at it from a “Loria scamming MLB, Montreal, Miami-Dade, & multiple fans bases to line his pockets” point of view, then yes. He has been an excellent soulless con man. Top notch. Among the best. Now he’ll flee the country to make the comparison complete.
I hope this new owner feels the need to fire sale. Stanton is a good as gone when he opts out.
Pray to god this man gets out of Miami, I wish someone like Derek Jeter, Mark Cuban even ARod is gonna be better than him.
Loria now realizes time is of the essence, if he wants that ambassadorship. He sees the Trump administration is unlikely to last the year. He’ll work it out to make it seem like there is no quid pro quo.
The separation of politics and baseball should be a proposed amendment to the constitution!