The Miami Marlins' new regime has stormed the compound and begun an aggressive tear-down of the roster to reduce payroll. Despite the immediate future looking bleak on the field, the front office is bullish on its financials.
The group led by Derek Jeter that bought the Marlins last fall put together a business plan called "Project Wolverine" outlining the expectations for the coming season. The document projects the team to "make an enormous profit in 2018 and sizable profits the following three years," according to the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson.
The most recent version of the document, from August, projects the Marlins to yield a cash flow profit of $68 million for the coming season. At least part of that stems from a combination of vigorously cutting payroll and the one-time, $50-million payout from MLB's sale of BAMTech to Disney.
The Marlins are apparently expecting to renegotiate their broadcasting deal with FOX this offseason, as well. The current television contract pays the least among all 30 teams.
Project Wolverine was issued to potential investors last year, two of whom shared copies of the document with the Miami Herald. The team did not comment on the contents. There have been updated versions, but those were not made public by the team.
