Miami Marlins dispose of another skipper amidst slump
The Fish are floundering. The Marlins, more specifically, are meandering mostly through mediocrity on a regular basis in 2015. Miami’s franchise has won two World Series in their short existence. Their last championship and postseason trip are one in the same and came in 2003. On Sunday after being two-hit by Shelby Miller in a 6-0 loss to the Braves, Mike Redmond was fired from his post as manager of the Miami Marlins.
In 2003, Jeff Torborg started the season as manager but was fired after a 16-22 start. Jack McKeon took over and led the team to a title. Oddly enough, Redmond had the Marlins off to a 16-22 start in the NL East in 2015, the same mark Torborg was previously dismissed at.
Miami’s franchise is now on manager number nine since the beginning 2003. The Marlins are 3-7 over their last 10 and currently are riding a three game losing streak. Bench coach Rob Leary was also dismissed from the team and the club has not yet announced their replacements.
As per Joe Frisaro at MLB.com, that announcement will come shortly during a press conference scheduled for tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM EST. An obvious internal candidate to become the new bench boss for the club is third base coach Brett Butler.
Now 57, Butler was a 17-year veteran center fielder who collected 2375 hits in his big league career. He got into coaching in 2005 with the Arizona Diamondbacks, gained some experience managing Minor League teams from 2006-2008 and was eventually hired following the 2013 season by the Marlins.
The fickle nature of being a coach or player within the Marlins’ organization tells the story of Jeffrey Loria’s schizophrenic temperament as an owner. Redmond was under contract to manage his club through the 2017 season. If one aspires to coach baseball at the Major League level, job security does not go hand-in-hand with working for the Marlins.
In a more notorious case of Loria prematurely dismissing a member of his staff, he fired Joe Girardi following the 2006 season despite Girardi winning AL Manager of the Year that same season by guiding the club to a 78-84 record with a stunningly low $15 million payroll. Girardi, of course, went onto manage the New York Yankees in 2008, winning a World Series in 2009, and is yet to record a losing season with them since becoming their skipper.
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If Girardi was let go because Loria cannot set his personal differences aside when it comes to the business of baseball, it shows his inept approach to building a perennial winner. Consistency from a coaching staff is an important aspect of creating a winning culture within the clubhouse.
After Girardi was fired, Fredi Gonzalez led the Marlins to winning in seasons in 2008 and 2009 despite again working with one of the lowest payrolls in MLB. He too was relieved of his duties thereafter, giving way to four more managers — the most notable being Ozzie Guillen in 2012 — since Gonzalez was fired.
Now the Miami Marlins are onto manager number five in as many seasons, and things could continue to get uglier before the ship gets righted. The surging Washington Nationals are on fire in the NL East having won eight of their last 10 contests, while the New York Mets are still riding their strong pitching and sit atop the division at 22-16 amidst a two-game win streak. Morale can’t be very high right now amongst Marlins players.