Derek Jeter’s bid for the Miami Marlins has lost one of its big billionaire backers, The Post has learned.

Chicago billionaire Richard Chaifetz has recently exited Jeter’s group — potentially leaving the Yankees great short of Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria’s asking price just days before Major League Baseball had hoped to have a winning bid chosen by the team.

Chaifetz was uncomfortable with Jeter seeking control while not investing much money in the team, sources said. Jeter several months ago left a bidding partnership with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush over similar control issues, sources said.

Jeter, working hard to make up for Chaifetz’s missing millions, may have come up with a way to plug the multi-hundred-million-dollar hole. A second billionaire member of Jeter’s group, Bruce Sherman, is picking up some of the slack to steady the future Hall of Famer’s bid, sources said.

Sherman, 69, is a co-founder of Legg Mason’s money management firm Private Capital Management, which he sold to them for $1.3 billion.

Sherman, who could not be reached for comment, has never bid for a major league sports team. He is a longtime Florida resident and is friends with Jeter.

Loria had put the money-losing Marlins up for sale earlier this year for $1.3 billion. Jeter and the other bidding groups each submitted bids in the $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion range, sources said.

It could not be learned at deadline if Loria, a New York art dealer, would cut his price or if the bidders would have to sweeten their offers.

With Major League Baseball hoping to wrap up the auction process by Tuesday’s All-Star Game — which happens to take place in Miami — Chaifetz’s exit could hamper Jeter’s bid.

At the same time, the frantic, late-breaking developments within Jeter’s group might convince MLB to push back a decision date, sources said — possibly to the end of the season in October.

Meanwhile, a rival bidding group, spearheaded by Mitt Romney’s son Tagg Romney, has dropped out, sources tell The Post.

A rep for the Romney group declined comment.

The fast-moving developments appear to leave Miami billionaire Jorge Mas in a much better position to be chosen the winner of the auction, sources told The Post.

For Jeter, whose dream of owning an MLB club could be coming down to the wire, a power-packed lineup of Wall Street backers had made him a top-of-the-list bidder.

The All-Star shortstop’s deep-pocketed backers, after the Chaifetz exit, include Sherman, Doug Kimmelman and John Troiano, sources said. None of the names had previously been reported.

Chaifetz is an entrepreneur who has made past bids for the NFL’s (then-) St. Louis Rams and the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks.

There were whispers Thursday that other backers too had dropped from Jeter’s group — but attempts to reach other bidders were not successful.

Kimmelman is a former Goldman Sachs executive who is a big infrastructure investor and who founded Energy Capital Partners.

One advantage Jeter has over Mas is that he is further along in talks with both MLB and Loria, sources said. Mas, sources added, isn’t far along in studying the Marlins financials and still needs to do more work before making a binding offer.

Reps for the Jeter group did not return emails seeking comment.