Marlins supervisor Skip Schumaker is about to develop into a free agent following the 2024 season, studies Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Schumaker was hired by the membership in October 2022 to serve beneath then-GM Kim Ng and agreed to a two-year take care of a membership choice for 2025, however Nightengale studies that Miami agreed to void the choice this previous winter.
Schumaker, 44, is a former massive league outfielder and second baseman who performed for the Cardinals, Dodgers, and Reds from 2005 to 2015 with a roughly league common .278/.337/.364 slash line in 1,149 profession video games. Only a few brief years after retiring as a participant in 2016, Schumaker started his teaching profession as the primary base coach in San Diego for the 2018 season. He was promoted to affiliate supervisor previous to the 2020 season however departed the membership previous to the 2022 marketing campaign to rejoin the Cardinals as Oli Marmol’s bench coach.
After a yr working beneath Marmol in St. Louis, Schumaker rapidly emerged as a finalist to interchange outgoing supervisor Don Mattingly in Miami, and ultimately reached a take care of the Marlins shortly thereafter. His debut season as supervisor scarcely might’ve gone higher, as Schumaker led a surprisingly aggressive Marlins membership to an 84-win season in 2023, securing the membership’s first full-season playoff look since 2003. Miami’s shocking efficiency was sufficient to earn Schumaker NL Supervisor of the 12 months honors over fellow finalists Craig Counsell and Briant Snitker.
Since then, nevertheless, there’s been loads of upheaval within the Marlins group. Ng parted ways with the group after possession refused to supply her an extension and indicated they deliberate to cut back her function by putting in a president of baseball operations above her, and her departure final fall reportedly upset Schumaker. The membership subsequently hired former Rays GM Peter Bendix to run the membership’s baseball operations division.
The membership went on to make minimal additions to its roster this winter, solely including shortstop Tim Anderson on a serious league deal regardless of watching slugger Jorge Soler depart for San Francisco through free company and dangling the likes of Jesus Luzardo in commerce talks this winter. Whereas it’s nonetheless early within the 2024 season, the early returns on the membership’s inaction this winter are nothing wanting terrible because the membership has misplaced every of its first 9 video games this season whereas struggling accidents to key items resembling Eury Perez and Braxton Garrett open the season on the injured checklist.
Given the current adjustments in membership management and the group’s struggles, it’s doable Bendix hopes to decide on his personal supervisor following the 2024 season, ensuing within the group being keen to forfeit their skill to unilaterally retain Schumaker for subsequent season. If Schumaker doesn’t stay in Miami past the present season, Nightengale means that he might be a part of Crimson Sox supervisor Alex Cora as one of the enticing managerial candidates out there to golf equipment this winter.
