JUPITER, Fla. -- Full-squad workouts began for the Marlins on Monday afternoon, and it was an opportunity for organization to introduce one of its newest administrative additions.
Jorge Posada, the five-time All-Star catcher and four-time World Series champion with the Yankees, is now a special adviser to baseball operations under Marlins chief executive officer Derek Jeter.
A Miami resident, Posada is a long-time close friend of Jeter, with the two coming up together through the Yankees' system under legendary owner George Steinbrenner. In his new role, Posada will provide insight and expertise in everything from player meetings to on-field instruction.
"He's going to add a lot of value," Jeter said. "He's going to add a lot of value to our player-development system."
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Posada spent his entire 17-year big league career -- from 1995-2011 -- with the Yankees. And he has a close relationship with Marlins vice president of player development and scouting, Gary Denbo.
"He's been with Gary for a long time," Jeter said. "He knows Gary very well. We look forward to him having the opportunity to share some of his experiences with the young guys coming up."
The Marlins have a youthful squad, and ownership is building the foundation from the Minor Leagues on up.
"I think that special adviser role is pretty open, in terms of how you utilize the strengths of that individual," Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said. "I would say you check all of the above boxes with Jorge, because we're going to use him every way possible to impact our organization."
Posada is the latest in a long line of former Yankees now with the Marlins.
"I wouldn't say, it's a Yankees feel," Posada said. "I'd say this organization itself is moving in the right direction. In the meeting today, they were talking about we're going to compete, and we're going to do everything we can to play the game the way it's supposed to be played."
Surrounding young athletes with high-character players from championship programs can be an important step in developing players.
The Marlins are in their second year of a rebuild process that will take time, but they are committed to put together a first-rate organization the right way.
Posada has plenty of experiences players can draw from.
"I'm coming from an organization that has valued [former] players," Jeter said. "I was always sort of a sponge for knowledge when I was younger.
"We had a particular mindset when we were coming up through our organization. Mr. Steinbrenner expected you to win every game you played. He didn't care if you were in the Minor Leagues or the Major Leagues; it was a mentality. I think we grew up with that environment, and we can share those experiences with the players."
Posada has lived in Miami since 2010, and the 47-year-old says the time is right to get back into the game in some capacity.
"I do want to get back into the game," Posada said. "I do want to help out. I want to be part of this organization moving forward, and look forward to things that I want to do."
Posada will be around the big league club, but is expected to spend a majority of his time with the Minor Leaguers. Miami has some promising catching prospects in Will Banfield (No. 9 in the organization per MLB Pipeline) and Nick Fortes, who promise to benefit by using Posada as a sounding board.
Banfield was a Competitive Balance Round B selection in the 2018 Draft and Fortes was taken in the fourth round.
"The players have to have their own experiences," Jeter said. "But I think just having that knowledge and being able to share that wisdom, so to speak, of what we've gone through as individual players, and what we've gone through from the team standpoint.
"Just for our players to have access to information like that, I think, is extremely important."