Derek Jeter is part of a group that is hopeful to be approved as the new ownership of the Marlins, buying the club from Jeffrey Loria. Club president David Samson, Loria's son-in-law, is also going to depart his duties with the club.

Samson did, however, fire several big names from the front office and it was reportedly at the behest of Jeter. In a bit of a mind-boggling report, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald has the details:

Derek Jeter doesn't even own the Marlins yet, but he already has informed the team that he plans to fire two special assistants who are in Baseball's Hall of Fame (Andre Dawson and Tony Perez), the manager who led them to the 2003 World Series championship (Jack McKeon) and the player known as Mr. Marlin (Jeff Conine), according to two MLB sources. And here's the twist: Jeter asked Marlins president David Samson to fire those four Marlins luminaries for him, because Jeter didn't want to do it.

Dawson, Perez, McKeon and Conine were only in "special assistant" roles for the organization, which many former players hold for the franchises they were associated with.

This seems just incredibly odd. Sure, new ownership groups are going to bring in their own people, but it's hard to imagine any of those four having any sort of negative impact on the team to the extent that they need to be fired before Jeter even officially has his hands on the team. The club president, general manager, assistant GM, director of scouting and other high-level front office positions are always sure to turn over with new owners, but the special assistants who are mostly just figureheads that lend a hand to the organization?

As I said, this is pretty odd.