Sunflower seeds erupted from Skip Schumaker’s mouth as the apoplectic manager of the Miami Marlins unleashed a volcano of wrath upon home plate umpire Laz Díaz.
The reason for Schumaker’s disgust: A moment of confusion during the eighth inning of Monday’s game against San Francisco that saw the wrong Giants reliever emerge from the visiting bullpen, thus allowing un-warmed-up Giants closer Camillo Doval the opportunity to throw a few extra pitches. That mistake, according to Schumaker, should have led to a pitch clock violation and a ball. Instead, Doval was given a clean count, which sent an incensed Schumaker back onto the field and then into the locker room, ejected from the game.
Doval completed the four-out save to hand Miami its 14th loss of the young season.
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How did the Marlins get here?
Less than six months after a storybook trip to October, the Marlins find themselves deep in quicksand and sinking fast. Miami’s 4-15 record is second-worst in the major leagues. The lineup is last or second-to-last behind the similarly dysfunctional White Sox in most offensive categories. Only the Astros (decimated by injuries) and Rockies (they play home games on the moon) have a worse team ERA.
To make matters worse, USA Today recently reported that Schumaker’s contract option for 2025 was voided by the Marlins over the winter, making the 2023 NL Manager of the Year an impending free agent. The Miami Herald then reported that the voiding was done at the request of Schumaker himself and that the Marlins are still interested in retaining his services beyond this season. What’s clear is that the 44-year-old manager, who is highly regarded across the sport after just one season in the job, is displeased with the current state of the organization.
When asked by Yahoo Sports, Schumaker, who was hired by Miami ahead of last season, declined to speak on the record about his contract situation, expressing that he did not want to create a distraction for his team or his players. However, the overwhelming expectation both within the Marlins organization and around Major League Baseball is that Skip will leave town this winter after two seasons in Miami. It makes for a jarring vibe shift compared to the celebratory atmosphere that surrounded Schumaker and his club at the end of 2023.
So what happened, and where does all this leave the team and its leader moving forward? Here’s a somewhat simplified version of events, as Yahoo Sports understands them.
After the Marlins were bounced in the 2023 wild-card round, team owner Bruce Sherman determined that the magic of the 2023 season, driven in large part by a 33-14 record in one-run games, was mostly a mirage. In his assessment, the MLB roster assembled by GM Kim Ng and the minor-league system she oversaw were not set up for sustained success. Experts around the game echoed this sentiment to Yahoo Sports. Most people commended Ng for the job she did at the big-league level with the resources she was afforded, particularly in 2023, but described Miami’s organizational infrastructure and processes as woefully inadequate and behind the times.
When Sherman attempted to hire someone above Ng to oversee the organization’s refurbishment, the first woman GM in baseball history understandably balked. She had, just months prior, helped guide an overlooked, underfunded team to its first full-season playoff appearance in two decades. Many of her moves — signing Jorge Soler, trading for Luis Arráez, acquiring Jake Burger and Josh Bell at the deadline — were huge wins. She’d thrived on a shoestring budget, and for her efforts, she was force-fed a demotion. And so, instead of sticking around under a new boss, Ng left the Marlins.
In her place, Sherman hired Peter Bendix — a longtime executive with the Tampa Bay Rays, a club whose sustained success has enamored Sherman — as Miami’s President of Baseball Operations. Sources tell…
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