Miami Marlins James Rowson Manager In Waiting – For Someone

The Miami Marlins James Rowson is not just a bench coach, but also a manager in waiting…for someone.

Miami Marlins bench coach James Rowson is just like you- probably puts the pants on one leg at a time, complete inability to tell the future. Unconfirmed on the pants, but both of those seem like reasonable assumptions.

Yet no amount of clairvoyance is necessary to make this statement: if Rowson is still with the Marlins in 2022, Don Mattingly is not.

Without question, Rowson can be elevated to manager-in-waiting status. The only thing that is in doubt is whether or not the Miami Marlins are going to be that team. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal speculated as such back in November, and Rowson was indeed a finalist to manage the Boston Red Sox this season. He’s a name well respected in baseball circles, having drawn recent acclaim both for his hand in Minnesota’s offensive explosion in 2019, and Miami’s own playoff run in 2020.

In terms of career progression, the rise has been swift-moving from hitting coach in Minnesota to bench coach in Miami. However, Monday night brought the best opportunity yet to see Rowson show off his managerial chops. The Miami Herald’s Jordan McPherson breaks it down in much better detail here. Basically, Rowson – in for an ejected Mattingly – made a crucial late double switch that allowed the Marlins to start extra innings with their fastest player on second base, rather than their closing pitcher. Thus increasing Miami’s odds of scoring, and keeping their best reliever available to pitch in the bottom half of the tenth.

It would be hard to argue that the move wasn’t the finest bit of tactical brilliance seen from the Marlins this season.

That being said, it would be equally hard to not credit Mattingly with perhaps sparking the team with his ejection. After a week of multiple horrible replay calls and one insipid decision involving a rain delay, the breaking point finally came when Jon Berti was ruled out after a successful steal to start the 8th inning. Mattingly’s options were down to getting tossed, or flying to New York and taking a Louisville Slugger to the MLB Replay Center’s monitors. It’s the kind of move that makes players love you that the 2020 NL Manager of the Year has shown a knack for countless times in his career.

Certainly, it’s possible that everything that happened last night happens even if Mattingly stays in the game. Very likely, Rowson whispers the double switch idea to Mattingly if he was there to hear it. Perhaps Mattingly came up with this himself on the flight back from New York yesterday, while the two discussed how they could best manage with a short bench thanks to the Mets scheduling shenanigans.

But Mattingly did get tossed. And Rowson was the sole decision maker of record for a move that helped the Miami Marlins pick up a crucial win. None of this is to say Miami should move on from Mattingly. Just that Rowson bolstered his case that he’s ready for the top job.

Rowson is going to be a manager someday for sure. The only question is whether or not it will be for Miami.