AND HE VOWED CHANGES
In his end-of-season news conference on Tuesday, Miami Marlins president of operations Peter Bendix recapped the Marlins’ 2024 season, and it wasn’t pretty.
Miami lost 100 games for the second time in six seasons, and missed the playoffs. This result was well-beneath fans expectations for the franchise, and their head coach 2023 NL Manager of the Year, Skip Schumaker. The Marlins and Schumaker mutually agreed that the coach would not return for the 2025 season. However, the Bendix vision for the upcoming rebuild is turning out to be way more comprehensive than any of us could have predicted.
This latest development comes six short months after one of the most odd stories of the season, when this same executive announced the trade of beloved star player Luis Arraez, while Arraez on the field with his team, prepared for the opening pitch of a game.
Miami Marlins’ Luis Arráez (3) receives a hug from a teammate after being traded to the San Diego Padres moments before their MLB game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, May 3, 2024. pic.twitter.com/rjK9zak6KS
— Jose Carlos Fajardo (@FuzyJoe) May 4, 2024
Bendix, was hired last winter as the Marlins’ president of baseball operations after 15 years with the Tampa Bay Rays. And, even that was awkward.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF KIM NG
In 2023, Miami Marlins fans were shocked when their team made a surprise appearance in the playoffs, after finishing third in the National League East Division. And then, the Miami Marlins fumbled the General Manager who made that surprise playoff run possible. Before joining the Marlins, Kim Ng spent nine years as a senior vice president for Major League Baseball.
She spent a combined 21 years in the front offices of the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, and she is the proud owner of three World Series championship rings.
Upon her arrival in South Florida, Ng was the highest-ranking woman in a major men’s North American professional sports front office, and the first female general manager in any American major sports league. Kim Ng (who also hired Skip Schumaker) was one of the most popular, respected and critical acclaimed executives in the sport at the time, respected by fans in Miami and the team owners rewarded her success by offering her a demotion.
A year later, much of that playoff caliber team has been dismantled, and Miami has fallen to dead last place in the division. As the kids say: it’s giving inside job, corruption and a conspiracy.
BENDIX ON THE REBUILD
One day after his public display of frustration, Bendix has shocked professional baseball once again by announcing that Miami’s entire 2024 coach staff will be accompanying Schumaker out the door.
Miami has posted a 146-178 record over the past two seasons, and is preparing to make his first head coaching hire of his Miami tenure.
Watch this space for updates.
THE CONVERSATION.