Coming through in the clutch takes on new meaning for Derek Jeter in Miami

And how could Miami fans ever forget the annual sell-offs of the team’s most valuable assets, including Miguel Cabrera, Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, Dontrelle Willis, Hanley Ramirez, Josh Johnson, Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle, to name a few? These were moves that not only alienated the fan base, but enraged the remaining players who were left behind to endure Loria's focused intent on maximizing personal profits over investmenting in victories.

As if that was not enough, there was the grand swindle he perpetrated on Miami-Dade County when he finagled the area’s taxpayers into footing the bill for the gaudy new stadium the Marlins currently call home, a stadium the area’s taxpayers are on the hook for $2.4 billion through 2048. It was a falsely advertised reinvention that included a brief — as in barely half-season — $160 million spending spree that brought a handful of big-name free agents to town (Reyes, Buehrle and Co.) to help sell the package before jettisoning them to get the bottom line back in order.

If all of that is not enough, he approved the awful outfield sculpture that is baseball’s ultimate eyesore in Marlins Park’s outfield. That alone is a crime against good taste.

It is quite a reclamation project ahead for Jeter and Co. that encompasses far more than just a roster, bench and front office cleanup lying between the team and a return to prominence. The decision of whether or not to attack a roster rebuild is not the most complicated one ahead; rather it is how to do it. The presence of cornerstone star Stanton virtually ensures an extreme shift in one direction or the other. He is due another $275 million over the next decade and has an ironclad no-trade clause to ensure creative control over his destiny. Even if he decides to forgo the early opt-out he can exercise after the 2020 season, there is the looming date of his 10/5 rights the following season as well. Basically, despite the fact he is an indisputably great asset to possess now, there is no more contractually protected player in the game today, and that makes him a difficult asset to rebuild around.

Regardless of the status of Stanton, there is no shortage of promising young talents to work either a rebuild or retooling around. Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna, Justin Bour and Dee Gordon were among the hottest names headed into the trade deadline but were retained by the gun-shy Marlins, who were still negotiating the team's sale. The decision to stand pat, which may or may not have been a condition of completing the sale of the team, puts the new management in a place to pick its rebuilding path.

How drastic of a change could be ahead by opening day next spring? There is some substantial work to do in overhauling the pitching staff, which is the major sticking point between helping Miami get over the hump. The Marlins are a team painfully in need of front-line upgrades to their starting staff, as only two Miami starters — Dan Straily and Jose Urena — have worked over 100 innings and maintained ERAs under 4.00 on the year, and only Straily has struck out 100 batters for a Marlins team that has missed the fewest bats in the National League this year.

Furthermore, after spending last winter courting some of the biggest free agent closers available, an intensified search for relief help awaits this winter after trading closer A.J. Ramos to the Mets earlier in the year.

Yet, reinventing a pitching staff aside, the true test of the early days of the new ownership era in South Beach will truly be how the multitude of necessary changes are confronted. No team in baseball will be busier than the Marlins this winter, as renovations to the front office look as if they will be comprehensive. Again, the task ahead for Jeter and Co. is a tall one.

It's likely that the front office will be somewhat restricted as ownership applies a new business model. With Jeter in tow, the Marlins should be able to buy some time and patience from a fan base the team desperately needs to win over again. That will play into regaining favor with corporate partners as much as trying to lure back season-ticket holders. Forbes ranked the Marlins as the 25th most valuable MLB club earlier in the year. With Jeter's cache in large market like Miami, new ownership will no doubt try to make that number rise quickly.

If that juggling act of settling the many direct baseball-oriented tasks were not enough, the most difficult task of all could be winning the political battles that lie ahead. Rebuilding the many bridges burned to their foundation by the Loria administration is a job that has already begun for Jeter. The universally respected presence of the future Hall of Famer will be called upon to buy time not only for rehabilitation with the fan base, but also with the corporate and local government community. Being the savvy businessman and public figure he is, Jeter is well aware of the move he is in the process of executing. What it all comes down to is the quality of product that makes its way to the field and emanates from the brand he's looking to not only to resuscitate, but rebrand in multiple arenas at once.

There is a mountain of work ahead for Jeter in building the Marlins into the image of what he understands an organization to be. How he orders his first heavily weighted steps will carry as much intrigue, anticipation and optimism as has ever been issued to any first-time executive in major sports history.

The moment has never been too big for Jeter before, so why start expecting it to be now?