The Marlins are gutting their teaching employees, as Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald reports that the whole employees has been knowledgeable it is not going to return for the 2025 season. Mish notes that a few “exceptions” have been informed there’s some curiosity in a reunion. Nonetheless, even that’s depending on the hiring of the incoming supervisor and any preferences that particular person might have. Particularly, Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base reports that bench coach Luis Urueta and first base/outfield coach Jon Jay have been informed there’s curiosity in a reunion, pending the managerial search. Nonetheless, each will probably be free to pursue different alternatives within the meantime.
This aligns with a report Tuesday evening from Isaac Azout of Fish On First, who reported that the Marlins’ firings had been being described to him as a “blood bathtub” that prolonged to the teaching employees, clubhouse attendants, efficiency employees and extra.
Supervisor Skip Schumaker already departed the organization over the weekend. His impending exit was one of many worst-kept secrets and techniques across the league. The previous large league utilityman and Cardinals bench coach was employed by former Marlins GM Kim Ng and gained NL Supervisor of the 12 months honors final season in his rookie effort. His authentic two-year contract included an choice for the 2025 season. Nonetheless, after the Marlins employed Rays GM Peter Bendix as their new president of baseball operations, prompting Ng to stroll away from the group. Schumaker reportedly voiced frustration with the membership’s route — understandably so, given final 12 months’s playoff berth — and administration agreed to void the 2025 club option on his deal to permit him to discover new alternatives.
Along with Urueta and Jay, Wednesday’s information presumably signifies that hitting coach John Mabry, assistant hitting coaches Invoice Mueller and Jason Hart, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr., third base coach Griffin Benedict, infield coach Jody Reed, bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda, bullpen coordinator Rob Flippo, and subject coordinator Rod Barajas will all be free to pursue different alternatives, if not dismissed outright.
Among the many group, Stottlemyre is a very sizzling commodity on the teaching market. He’s spent a dozen years on large league teaching staffs, serving as each a pitching coach and bullpen coach along with prior stints as a minor league pitching coordinator. He’s labored with the D-backs and Mariners organizations however has spent the previous seven years because the pitching coach in Miami, constructing a robust fame.
Whereas the Marlins have recurrently been a doormat within the NL East — aside from the 2020 and 2023 seasons — a robust core of touted younger pitching has been a trademark of the workforce lately. Stottlemyre alone isn’t to credit score for that, in fact, however his affect on the employees and the group’s general pitching growth is obvious. Cepeda, it ought to be famous, has been in lockstep with Stottlemyre all through his time within the group. He was employed because the Marlins’ bullpen coach again in 2019. The 2 have labored alongside each other for seven years.
That’s to not say others on the employees gained’t be coveted free brokers in their very own proper. Urueta spent 15 years within the D-backs system, rose to their bench coach below Torey Lovullo, and has beforehand interviewed for MLB managerial posts. Mabry and Mueller, along with prolonged big-league careers, have in depth teaching backgrounds throughout a number of organizations. Barajas, who additionally had a prolonged large league profession, has served because the bench coach and interim supervisor of the Padres and has interviewed for numerous managerial posts lately (along with a number of years as a minor league supervisor in San Diego’s system). Jeff Jones of the Belleville Information-Democrat speculates that Jay may wind up a goal of the Cardinals, for whom he performed six MLB seasons — although Jay may additionally be part of Schumaker wherever he lands his subsequent managerial task.
Broadly talking, the Miami teaching employees can hardly be faulted for the disastrous report this season. Bendix spent a lot of the 2023-24 offseason reshaping the baseball operations division and did little to enhance the precise Marlins roster. Accidents waylaid a lot of the pitching employees, and when Miami opened the season with a big dropping streak, the entrance workplace wasted little time in waving the white flag. Luis Arraez was traded to San Diego in early Might, signaling precisely what route the brand new baseball ops employees would take. No supervisor or teaching employees may’ve spun the ’24 Marlins right into a contender, and different golf equipment will certainly be cognizant of that as they present curiosity in a wave of newly obtainable teaching expertise.
