After the decision to fire manager Mike Redmond last night,Ā the Marlins have officially announced that general manager Dan Jennings will succeed Redmond as the team’s new manager. Advance scout and former Mariners first base coach/bench coach Mike Goff will be the club’s new bench coach, while VP/assistant GM Mike Berger will assume Jennings’ former front office roles.
The decision was announced at an 11am ET press conference today in which Jennings, president of baseball operation Michael Hill and team president David Samson addressed the media. Owner Jeffrey Loria was not present for the press conference.Ā Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald has a plethora of quotes from Jennings, Hill and Samson alike.
According to Hill, JenningsĀ “is our manager for the remainder of the season. As we do with everything, we re-evaluate at the end of the season.”Ā For the time being, the GM role with the Marlins will be considered vacant, but Jennings could return to that position at season’s end, Jon Heyman of CBS SportsĀ tweets. Hill will head the baseball operations department, Jackson notes, and Samson acknowledged at the presser that Jennings is actually under contract through the 2018 season. Previously, Jennings was only known to be under contract through the 2015 campaign.
Samson said that the idea of Jennings taking the managerial reins was first generated on a conference call and then presented to Loria, who was amenable to the idea. Said Jennings of the hire,Ā “Itās an honor and a privilege to be able to lead this team that I had a hand in putting together.”Ā Jennings was, however, quick to recognize that he would need some help from someone with more experience.Ā “I said the only way I would consider it is if Mike Goff was removed from advanced scouting position and moved to bench coach,”Ā said Jennings. Goff has also served as a manager in the minor league systems of the Reds and Giants.
There’s little precedent for such a move, although the Brewers just made at least a somewhat similar move by shifting Craig Counsell from special assistant to GM Doug Melvin to the role of manager. The D-Backs took a comparableĀ course in 2009 when the moved A.J. Hinch from the front office — he was the team’s director of player development — to the managerial role after dismissing Bob Melvin. Going further back, in 1989 the Indians named John Hart manager for a brief 19-game stretch to close out the season before transitioning him to president of baseball operations the following year.
The move to hire Jennings continues a recent trend of managerial hires despite zero prior experience, but those hires have all been of former players. In addition toĀ Counsell, the Rays’ Kevin Cash, the Twins’ Paul Molitor, the White Sox’ Robin Ventura, the Tigers’ Brad Ausmus and the Cardinals’ Mike Matheny are just a few examples of current managers whose first experience in the role is coming at the big league level. Those managers, however, had at least spent significant time in the dugout as players and, in many cases, as coaches of varying capacity as well.
Jennings has no dugout experience, so while he is a respected baseball mind throughout the industry, he’s certainly stepping into uncharted territory here. FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal speculates that Jennings is taking the job at least somewhat out of a sense of obligation. Loria trusts Jennings a great deal and gave him an eight-year contract with the club’s front office following the 2007 season, Rosenthal notes, creating a strong sense of loyalty to Loria in Jennings.
The Marlins are currently still paying Jennings’ GM predecessor, Larry Beinfest, and they’ll also pay Redmond through the 2017 season and pay former manager Ozzie Guillen through the end of the current season. As such, the move from GM to manager for Jennings will prevent the team from taking on a financial commitment to a third manager, though it’s not directly clear how large a role that factor played in the decision.
Jon Heyman of CBS Sports first reported the decision (Twitter link) after suggesting it as a possibility on Sunday evening.Ā USA Today’s Bob Nightengale first reported that Goff would be the bench coach and Berger would assume Jennings’ previous front office roles (Twitter links).
I am starting to think that Jeffery Loria is just a prank being pulled on fans by Major League Baseball
There are no laughs or love lost in Montreal…..
I think he is doing a great job, he is an innovator!
sarcasm?
Not at all, I support his ideas 110%!
I feel like people are going to pre-emptively criticize this move more just because it’s the Marlins than anything else. As someone in the last thread mentioned, Booby Cox took a similar route. Not that Dan Jennings is Bobby Cox, but it’s not like this is some bizarre, unprecedented scheme concocted by Loria.
Bobby Cox was a manger in MLB from 78-85 before he became the GM for the Braves for a few years. So when he went back to being a manager, he had prior experience.
Except Cox had a VAST coaching experience, Jennings has pretty much none.
Also, your “Booby Cox” is hilarious!
Bobby Cox was both a ML player and manager before he became GM, then back onto the field as manager. Dan Jennings has no such experience or background.
Jennings will probably realize the hardest thing about managing is; traveling, dealing with 25 wealthy characters, talking to the media, etc.
Definitely not composing the lineup. I’m guessing they will have a computer do that
I read somewhere that they simulated a season 100 times and the difference between the worse and best lineup (and I’m talking leading off with your 5th hole hitter and using your best hitter 9th) was less than 2 wins in a year. Managing a bullpen is another story though
Loria is insane. What a shame for Marlins fans
What fans. You ever see the attendance in that stadium.
That’s the reason why they have low attendance
Let’s not rush to judgment, Mr. Loria is a world champion owner!
if this is confirmed at 11AM season over for the Marlins
Wow. At this point why not just select a ticket holder from the crowd to manage at the start of every game? I would find this hard to digest as a Marlins player.
That would actually be a great way to boost attendance, too. It would be pretty fun.
Well, this is…..um……I…..:puts head down:
If he makes moves that give his team a better chance to win, he’ll be a better on-field manager than most of baseball. He probably has a leg up in that area. But who knows how well he can manage a group of 25 guys. That is the biggest challenge over the course of a long season.
This is laughable…
Let’s see… Loria feels they need a more competent manager, so he chooses somebody with absolutely no managerial experience.
I understand.
Was Ted Turner not available?
No, and Jane Fonda wanted too much money.
Ronald McDonald?
Too much experience. He once managed a fast food restaurant.
I believe Ted Turner is busy locked in a room planning the Christmas Story marathon on TNT for December 24-25….he loves the red rider
Well, gee why not let Jeff Loria in the dugout?
Also,Pat Riley. He’s won a few championships.
Me
and Ted Turner.
I can’t wait!!!
Oh and too bad Bill Veeck isn’t still alive, I would have him too.
Riles was hired to coach the Lakers after being the analyst on TV with Chick Hearns and working in the Laker FO.
Seems to have worked out OK.
I’m guessing the skillset required to coach a basketball team is much different than the skillset required to manage a baseball team. And Riley, of course played 10 seasons in the NBA.
wow.. i didnt realize it until reading this article but this move screams $$ save. this way Loria doesnt have to pay a THIRD manager THIS year.
I’d say that basically, that’s it.
Yeah but if that’s the concern why fire the manager in the first place.
I bet Giancarlo Stanton wishes he were still out in the Dodger Stadium parking lot chasing that home run he hit. “Hey, you guys go go catch the flight…I’m going to go see if I can find that ball.”
He’s thanking his lucky stars he has an opt-out clause.
All the cash in the contract comes after the opt out. Loria is hoping he opts out.
Sort of like a Soviet ballet dancer defecting.
Yep.
so damned weird….I mean, I know Loria is the owner, still. As odd as the Counsel hiring, or perhaps even more so.
Still waiting for MLB to fine Milwaukee and now the Marlins for not considering minority candidates.
Are you serious? What a mess.
To be fair, this has precedent. The Cardinals and Braves both did this. They brought Whitey Herzog and Bobby Cox out of the front office. Dan Jennings is clearly the Curly in that comparison stooge-fest
No it doesn’t. Both Herzog and Cox were players and had significant previous managerial and coaching experience to go with their GM titles.
Yes..I know.
Then there isn’t a precedent.
Sarcasm was kind of my point…obviously Cox and Herzog are no comparison and Jennings is Curly.
Jim Fanning in Montreal replacing Dick Williams in 1981. In 1983 the Phillies fired Pat Corrales, with the team in first, and replaced him with GM Paul Owens. Those are the only two examples I can think of that are similar. As others have said, Cox and Herzog were actually managers so it wasn’t so odd.
On one hand, Mike Redmond is probably saying “Wilbur Tango Foxtrot” over and over and over. On the other hand, there will be a day in which he looks back and feels relief for having been released from that asylum.
I don’t really see a problem with this, from any angle.
why does a manager HAVE TO have managing experience? seeing how he knows baseball I would imagine that is good enough. as the GM of THIS team I imagine he is going to know these players more than some new guy coming in. will he make mistakes? I would be surprised if he didn’t, but you could put that tag on pretty much every manager in baseball.
as for the minority part, please, no issue and no reason to even mention it. if Loria already had this guy in mind as who he wanted, it’s a waste of time to interview someone else they wouldn’t have hired regardless.
Because managers with no managing or major-league coaching experience have really poor track records. There probably hasn’t been even one that was successful. This kind of reminds me of the time the Sox hired Hawk Harrelson from the broadcast booth to the front office, where he was an unmitigated disaster. And Harrelson at least played the game.
experience doesn’t equal success either. also depends on the team as to the talent they have. wouldn’t teams that would be hiring managers without any previous managing experience be more of the lesser talented teams and therefore it’s not really the manager as to why they didn’t win. I have no idea what type of baseball guy Jennings would be, but what if he has a different type of philosophy (like Jonah Hill character in Moneyball). that could have some potential for success.
if they hired someone without any baseball experience (on the field or off the field) then I would be more concerned.
Experience doesn’t equal success, sure, but no experience has always led to a lack of success, basically. Even guys like Bo Porter and Maury Wills, who were hired with no managerial experience and were awful managers, had playing experience. Jennings doesn’t even have that. But maybe he’ll just do something totally crazy every night, like lead off with the pitcher or play Mike Morse at shortstop. If he succeeds more power to him, but there’s no real example of a manager who succeded while never playing the game or managing the game at some level.
That’s a weak argument, at best.
There is no reason to believe being a former player plays any role in success of a manager. Every industry benefits from outsiders coming in to take over managerial positions, because outsiders do what is called “asking the naive question.” Outsiders don’t “know” how to do things so they ask “how do you do this?” And if the answer doesn’t make any sense, for instance “we’ve always done it that way, I don’t know why”, then the outsider can just, you know, not do it that way anymore. Leading to increased efficiency, out of the box thinking, and very often success.
Except there’s a long track record in baseball that suggests that outsiders don’t succeed. It would be nice to see one succeed, but right now, and for, basically, all of baseball history, the only managers who have been successful have been ex-players. Heck, there’s a reason no team even has non-players managing their teams. Going quickly through the 30 ML teams for the last 10 seasons, I can’t find one team managed by a guy who never played or coached at any level.
No, there isn’t. There is not a long track record of failure at all. If anything, there is a long track record of outsiders increasing efficiency of the way baseball management works. Guys like Sandy Alderson coming in and revolutionizing the game.
But he didn’t manage the on-field team. That’s what we’re talking about here. Alderson was smart enough to hire experienced managers. To be clear, I’m only talking about on-field managers. The list of successful, on-field managers who didn’t play the game is basically non-existent. In fact, I can’t find a single one.
You know what? I just went through the archive and found the record of managers who never played as a player. Their record:
23227-24509, .487 W%.
So, in other words, they have lost 2 games less than your so called so far superior “ex player manager”. And considering that a lot of these managers were probably instilled in desperate situations, ie below average teams, I say that isn’t saying much.
Played as a player in the majors, or in professional baseball (i.e. the minors).
The database is wonky and Im not spending time correcting it. So, both. A seemingly random distribution of standard of what it means to have not played.
I don’t know what wonky means. I’m interested in the integrity of the data.
I’ve been following MLB for almost 60 years and I know of no manager that didn’t have any sort of playing experience in pro ball. They may have been a few when owners managed their own teams, but that went out in the early 20th century.
The majority of these names are from before 1890.
Names like Ormond Butler, Al Wright, Jim Hart
Connie Mack was a player, and he is the only one I am aware of that managed extensively. Ted Turner managed one game, so I guess there’s one example
You’re talking about major league playing experience. I was talking about all levels of professional baseball. I can’t name a single manager who didn’t play the game. Except for guys like Ted Turner or Jennings.
That’s because a vast majority of these guys you’re poopooing were managers in 1860s.
Well, baseball in the 1860s doesn’t even look like baseball now. You know in the 1860s batters told the pitcher where they wanted the ball pitched, right? And of course, without a history – or minor leagues – it was probably more likely that managers in the 1860s had less experience, simply because there was less experience to be had. Let’s just take, say, post 1910 baseball. Can’t find a manager who didn’t play professionally (a successful one, that is).
Poeple such as Walter Alston, Earl Weaver and Sparky Anderson had a cup of coffee as MLB players, and went on to great managerial careers. But they learned the in’s and out’s of both the game and managing players in the minors.
You are saying that managers who never played professional baseball have managed almost 50,000 games? I think there might be a flaw in your research.
Considering that there are 9720 wins+losses to be had during the current 162 game regular season, I’d say it’s reasonable. Granted there have been times of fewer games and fewer teams, but the game’s been around for over 120 years.
At 47736 wins+losses for managers without playing experience, and 415822 wins+losses for all managers ever, you’re looking at about 11.5% of wins+losses being managed by someone without playing experience.
I’ll be fair and say the VAST majority of all managers have horrible track records
I’d say it’s a lot easier for the players to respect you if you have went through the same struggles as they do. A former player can read faces and pick up on things. They can help a player with mental aspects, suggest better routes to balls, swing timing, etc. What is a front office guy gonna do, hand a player a piece of paper and tell them to write what they want their stat line to be? Not to say someone that never played the game can’t be a great manager, but they can never connect with their players in the same way that a former player can.
There are no current managers who didn’t play the game at some level. Well, except Jennings.
Sorry, but the minority part is worth mentioning because it seems to be the new trend, not exclusive to the Marlins, to avoid hiring minorities. Years ago the trend was hiring broadcasters. The Marlins have a better record on minority hiring than most clubs, but it is noticeably the new scam in MLB to make these kinds of hires. Not saying that some of them don’t work out (Matheny) or that hiring minorities always do (Guillen: the Miami Edition), but I question the motivation of some of these owners.
I have to doubt that any team in baseball is specifically not hiring a minority BECAUSE they’re a minority. if someone is good enough to be considered for a hiring, they’re race is/should be irrelevant. the new trend is being PC so that the public isn’t offended and we’re sending this message about equality.
Where will we be in 15 years? The level of minorities in the game
.speaking about African Americans.. Is so low that the percentages are low one is hired down the road to manage.
Yes, I’m sure Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill has a lot of reservations about hiring a minority… like himself.
Jennings didn’t have a problem hiring himself, either!
I agree with you. If no other team follows the MLB protocol, you would think the former Commissioner’s Milwaukee Brewers would have. Yet they circumvented interviewing a minority.
MLB owners started changing things when moneyball came in, thinking people massaging data on a PC could run a baseball organization better than a GM that had worked his way up in MLB, and they did it for a lot less money. Furthermore, they wouldn’t need as many scouts, so that expense could be cut out. Since then anything is fair game, as experience learning the business from the ground up is becoming less and less of a prerequisite to attain a position. No different then in many other American businesses.
The Moneyball explanations have been amazingly overstated…teams hire scouts to at least verify their data now. No team has EVER run data only. They don’t even claim that. That was a work of Michael Lewis’s interesting mind….after Minnesota turned the project down he moved onto Oakland. Good story…some truth in there for sure…but just a bit of weaving a narrative. So little discussion of that A’s pitching staff.
Well, it remains to be seen how the payers react/respond to someone who seems to have no on-field experience.
Let’s say you work at a bank. Why would you want to hire a financial analyst with experience?…. It’s a no brainer
If I were a Marlins fan – I would assemble the fan base, about 4,000 people and march around Marlins park for 40 days and 40 nights hoping it falls down, the city of Miami’s insurance kicks in and they send Loria packing. This guy should be banned from baseball.
He is a Bud Selig buddy. After bringing the Expos to DC, he can do whatever he wants and baseball won’t care.
Loria is a dumpster fire as an owner.
Ozzie is still on the payroll – bring him back and the Twitter circus that follows.
Have Stanton and The Rock do a feature for the team – Loria will have Ozzie get kicked out of every game turning over the reins to JayLo.
Why are none of the rich teams poaching Stan Meek? He seems to be the life blood of the team so they can keep going through this painful cycle of finding great young talent then eventually trading it for more great young talent. Is he loyal to Loria for some reason or another?
This should be interesting. You know, with all the negativity I wouldn’t doubt if Stanton takes over and just manages the team the rest of the season. What the team actually needs is a new GM, so maybe this is the way to get’em?
New owner, not GM
I don’t see what’s so odd about it…….
Many people are moved into the GM role that have no experience in playing the game professionally, coaching or managing in the pros, or even going out and scouting in the game. They worked in the FO and got promoted.
It’s odd just from a player relationship role. Not saying it can’t possibly work…but this isn’t a savant organization we’re talking about. Wouldn’t you feel a bit different if this were Billy Beane making an unusual hire?
No.
You are a person of greater faith than I.
I totally disagree. Being in a FO requires a complete different skill set than being a manager. A GM can do his job from a desk and make decisions etc. Managers make decisions on the spot and have to juggle players’ personalities and a pretty tough travel schedule. At the very least a manager should have played the game at some level (majors, minors, etc). Taking a guy from an office and putting him in a uniform is a terrible idea if the last time the guy wore a uniform was in high school or for his daughter’s little league team 10 years ago. Anyone can “manage” sitting in a couch, but try telling Stanton that he needs to run out his groundballs or tell Yelich to keep the double play in order, or Ozuna not to swing at everything with 2 strikes, and then have to answers questions from the media after every game. Being a manager is not only tough but it’s very different from working in the office.
Jennings is an interesting choice. Might start a trend. I heard George Halas might be availiable
Just skimming the B-R manager pages, but I realized that there is not a single successful major league manager that didn’t play the game professionally. That seems crazy to me, I would have thought there would be at least one outlier. It’s not the case with other sports; I wonder what it is about baseball that makes it so hard to manage without playing. There have also been almost no successful managers that didn’t manage at some level in the minors, or coach in the majors. Considering professional baseball is 140 years old, it’s a bit surprising.
I think Fredi Gonzalez is a poor manager (I say this as a Braves fan), but his record as Braves manager is decent. He was actually decent in Florida too and was coming off back-to-back winning seasons, then was fired. He never played professionally.
I think the importance of having a manager who was a former player is purely a respect/reputation thing. Tactically, baseball isn’t all that difficult of a game to manage. It’s more important to control personalities in the clubhouse and build team chemistry, and if you’re a manager who never played it’d be harder to do that.
Gonzalez spent six years in the minors.
True, should have said never played in the majors.
Lots of managers never played in the majors; But all have played professional ball on some level. That was what I was trying to get at.
It’s more than you think…only 5 current managers didn’t play in the Majors. I would think that’s a much higher ratio than other sports.
baseball-reference.com/managers/
If it hasn’t happened in the modern age then it never did. Baseball is just a good old boys network… And until recently didn’t even have too many college grads in it.
Barry Bonds would have been an out-of -the-box hire.
They don’t have a hat in his size.
At least not in the box.
What a joke.
There is a consideration that may have factored in here……
Many of the larger market and/or well-run teams have been getting upset about the amount of money they’re putting into revenue sharing. That translates into them subsidizing other franchises that are squandering money by making bad baseball decisions. They feel they’re being penalized for running an efficient operation.
I do believe the Marlins have been recipients of not just revenue sharing, but Loria got a financial helping hand when he took over the Marlins in the in the Expos / Nationals / Red Sox ownership changes. Laurie giving out lavish contracts along with paying FO people and managers after they’ve been fired are not the sort of things that other franchise owners feel they should be paying for. I’d suspect there has been some discussion behind the scenes which put pressure on the Marlins to hire someone they already have on the payroll – as the degree of revenue sharing has already been put up for discussion during the next CBA.
That’s an interesting take. We do have a different Commissioner, and perhaps there’s a new sensitivity to the revenue sharing/spending aspect. The Marlins’ stadium financing might also be a problem, given the concerns about it and the impact that might have on other team’s chances to get public funding (Oakland comes to mind). And, I wonder if some large market teams might also not be a little raw over Houston’s approach, which now appears very successful, but came at the expense of subsidies from everyone else over a period of years.
I’ve read stories about teams that contribute into the fund getting upset at pretty much paying for other franchises mistakes. A few years ago I read an interview with a team president that bragged that he knew going into the season that his franchise would make money on even anemic attendance, thanks to the sharing of TV and merchandising monies, along with revenue sharing. That was not the first time I’d read or heard about that sort of thing. At some point owners of other teams cannot guarantee poorly run teams a profit.
I do believe in a form of revenue sharing to level the playing field some. But teams that guarantee lavish contracts to players and employees that that don’t work out, are not the sorts of things that other owners should be held responsible for helping with.
I think the point might be best expressed with the phrase “competitive balance.” If you are a big market team, you pay in directly with luxury tax, or indirectly with revenue sharing, you try to field a playoff team each year, you end up with lower draft picks, you don’t get the “competitive balance” draft picks, then you certainly want those bucks to give smaller market teams the chance to be more competitive–to produce a better product when they come into town and you want to put fannies is seats. Also, the last thing you want to do is subsidize another franchise’s bottom line at the expense of your own.
I think the revenue sharing conversation is lessening due to the shared media revenue which has every team rolling. Yankees better not scream too much about revenue sharing…they still schedule small market teams that generate their cash flow. I totally get what you’re saying…but there are expanding revenue pools
Baseball also has to be careful…they are independent franchises by law…they meddle too much in each other and someone…MLBPA..etc would just love to test that antitrust exemption
Interesting theory…but a.managers pay is piddly. This likely has to do with an owner who’s backed themselves into a corner by their own doing and doesn’t have much option in a hiring.
There are two kinds of “Off the Wall”. There’s off the wall genius… Thats the guy who sees something no one else sees and it works. Billy Beane is that guy. Then there’s off the wall ineptitude…. That’s Loria. That track record isn’t going away.
$1MM in managers pay could add a player to the Marlins payroll.
What was Jennings making as.a GM? Does he take a pay cut?
Don’t know, but he does lose any job security he had!
Doubtful, he’s an organization guy…they’ll just boost him back upstairs in some way. He’s been in the game over 30 years.
I just know if I was moved down to a lower position, and someone else was given the authority to make the “higher” decisions that my old job had, I would be thinking that that gives my employers options, and I may never get the old job back.
I’m sure he may be offered “another position in the organization,” but he may never see GM again, because if he fails as Manager, that means he made a poor decision as a GM in choosing his manager.
Mlb teams are generally more flexible than that. In particular the new GM could be moved with the Marlins. This doesn’t have interim in the title, but I’d imagine another reorg might be in the offing over the winter
So… what you’re saying is that Loria hiring Jennings, proves that Miami is not an efficient run operation,…and therefore should receive revenue sharing. Kinda like “if she weighs the same as a duck, she floats, and is therefore…
A WITCH!!!”
And what else floats? Sticks. And what do you do with sticks? BURN THEM! Great Monty python reference.
Glad somebody got it š
I really feel for those who pay good money to watch the Marlins.
The Marlins are the worst run organization in sports. I’m sure Stanton loves this move. A GM who has no experience as the field manager. Good move from a clown organization
They have to figure out some way to get Stanton to opt out of that contract.
He sure would look good in Boston , and they got the Prospects that the Owner loves , Cheap and Controllable !
I almost made a joke about this being a route they could take yesterday. I figured I’d leave it alone when someone suggested making Ichiro a player manager, which I thought beat me to the punch. But apparently Loria has beaten us all to the punch…. Poor, poor Marlin fan.
Congratulations to the other NL East teams. Your path to the playoffs is now easier. Lauria has removed any doubt as to whether or not he knows what he’s doing.
Was it ever considered hard to beging with? lol
Looks like Fred Willard
Is this really a good idea for the marlins
we’re talking about Bobby Cox but I’ll give you a example of the best manager at National Basketball Association.. Gregg Popovich was GM that named himself manager of San Antonio Spurs and only resign from GM post 5 years after that.. before he only was assistant coach on several teams.. this isn’t about the past experience.. Spurs have 5 title during guidance of Pop.. it’s a normal approach, it isn’t but it’s a craziness? I don’t think so..
Bobby Cox did have extensive front office experience…but that was a day and age of a less complex front office…he also had on field management experience. Herzog and Cox can go out the window as comps. Is it crazy? No…simply because they aren’t getting .a good manager because of the inane ownership.
In a quite convenient move, Popovich also named himself manager when the Spurs picked up a decent little college prospect named Tim Duncan to put alongside David Robinson. I might have been able to manage that team to a title or three.
Dan Jennings to Stanton after a strikeout. “That didn’t look like a 20MM per season at bat.” Dan Jennings to Dee Gordon after an error “I traded Andrew Heaney for you. Shape up.”
Per Marlins ESPN news feed:
Dan Jennings’ mother on him taking managerial job – “Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind?”
That is not a joke.
Jennings’ wife: “Honey, I’m so sorry. I’ll go ahead and put the house up for sale.”
That one is just a joke. I think.
Haha got to love Mrs. J! Such a sweet lady.
This is starting to sound like a ‘Major League’ sequel storyline.
THIS is EXACTY why Stanton should not have signed long term with the Marlins.
I thought the opt out clause was so the Marlins could get out of the deal, but I am starting to think it was the other way around.
Whatever. I would rather have Jennings than McClendon in Seattle. At this time of the season it’s pretty darn hard to find someone to take over a MLB team. Guys aren’t going to leave their positions for a temp job in Florida. What this tells us mostly is that there isn’t anyone suitable in the organization to take the reins.
Not many would take that job….it has “Former Miami Marlins Manager” written all over it. They aren’t the Steinbrenner Yankees recycling Billy Martin every two weeks.
There are hundreds of guys in baseball that would take the job in a heartbeat.
Well, of course, so hiring the GM makes total sense.
I also believe in the Tooth Fairy!
Lmao, the Marlins are too cheap to pay for a manager. I love that terrible joke of a franchise. Maybe they shoulda tricked tax payers into buying a manager for them.
* Fiscally responsible
*Fiscally incapable.
I think this sounds like a game changing move! Great move by the two time world champion Marlins!
Game changing meaning they are switching from baseball to water polo or something else? I’m not sure of Jennings management qualifications for that.
I don’t think this is the message you send either Stanton, the young team, or a beleaguered fan base that thought maybe they were getting a winner this season.
Interesting idea about water polo, do you know any good deals on above ground pools?
Also please keep in mind Mr. Jennings does not have a losing managerial record, unlike the Mike “L” Redmond
Great time to get in on an above ground pool…the market is flooded.
I’ll wait to decide one game whether Mr. Jennings has a winning or losing record. I like to let things gel and age.
Cox was GM and field manager for the latter part of the 1990 season. He was replaced as GM after the 1990 season.
How long before Stanton demands a trade? Isn’t it like 6 years no trade cause or something? Or is it the whole 13? I can’t imagine he’s happy with Loria’s decisions.
Dinger Stanton may opt out after the 2020 season. He is a respectable young man who understands the value of sticking to your commitments!
Stanton signed his no-trade clause when he signed his contract. Stanton isn’t going anywhere.
As a Braves fan, I can take in heart in knowing the Marlins have pretty much been eliminated from contention.
As a Cardinals fan, it pains me to see fans of baseball still think a manager plays much of a factor over the course of a season.
Seriously?!?!?!?
Nah, not really. It doesn’t bother me much if people want to blame their favorite team’s struggles on the manager.
I’ll bet he’s a better game manager than almost every manager in baseball. It’s just a matter of if he can get the teams respect and be a leader.
Finally a reasonable take on this smart baseball move!
I’m being serious. Jennings probably understands win probability and will make more moves accordingly. The majority of managers in baseball make moves that decrease their team’s chance at winning. We’ve already seen front office jobs move away from “baseball guys” we’ll see if that trend moves to the Managers position.
Jennings is a YES Man !
Jennings is THE Man!
Jennings is THE yes man!
Not likely… We’ll see ex-players of some extraction who buy at least into a stat/scouting hybrid. The number of players that develop ties within baseball indicates that. I think we’re beyond the day and age of having baseball people that will play a guy because the last time they also had chicken on a Tuesday he hit.
Baseball isn’t black and white.
Why would you say that?
Before people get off on a “the manager has very little impact” tangent. Let me remind that it’s the manager that determines whether the players can drink in the hotel bar or not. This might be a team that is really going to need to find a drink. That’s a lot of extra travel if Jennings decides they have to leave the Hotel.
Team policy is no mini bar for the players, they drink on their own dime!
Gosh, can they afford that?
Marlins employees get a discount on MD 20/20 (Marlins colors only).
So in other words, they’ll be drinking on Stanton’s dime(s)?
Mr. Stanton is a good club house guy.
“Giancarlo, go ask Jeff L if you can borrow his credit card for the night!”
He would never do that, unless he wants to be traded!
“Guys, I’ll go ask Jeff L if I can borrow his credit card for the night!” -Stanton
I’m picturing Loria holding a team meeting to discuss how to make a Harvey Wallbanger with hotel mini bottles
Okay, on the MLBTR Facebook page where this is mentioned, the best comment I saw was, “I guess if it doesn’t work out, he can always become a relief pitcher…”
He is practicing his knuckleballs during BP!
Then they really messed up. Stanton had a lot more value before the extension. The market for Stanton is about 3 teams.
I assume this was done to streamline the process for discontent players requesting trades away from the Marlins. Rather than making a phone call or heading up to the team offices, they can just have these discussions in the dugout. When looked at from this perspective, this is a very forward-thinking move!
Jennings isn’t the GM anymore
They would be better off if they made the mascot manager instead.
Billy the Marlin will only be manager when we finalize the deal for Dancing Homer as GM
You are right.
Jeffrey Loria had this to say to his critics, “A Marlin isn’t a flounder. We’ve got to get it going.”
Well…uh…there you have it? I guess?
100% true!
Should’ve just made Stanton they playing manager.
That will make it tougher when the trad happens!
I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as everyone is saying it will be. Being from the front office, he’s going to be much more accepting of sabermetrics and he will put them to use. I know coaching high school isn’t the same as the pros, but he has to have a great baseball mind to be brought up through the front office. I wouldn’t be surprised if this move becomes something more teams adopt, although not necessarily with the GM.
Good take! Thanks for the support!
Well this may not be the most hilarious news in Miami sports today. $96 million for Ryan Tannehil?
Now I would like to see Jennings succeed just due to the skepticism and see if a front office attitude actually produces better strategy while sufficient handling ego.
He will!
Water polo or baseball?
I’m still looking for a good pool deal on Craigslist.
Pool… maybe a future in team pocket billiards?
Maybe if I find a good table. Trying to trade for the Chase field pool, the amount of vodka Tony wants back is a little much though.
After watching the Houston Game ,they could use him in that lineup ! They would just have give a lot of Quality that they have,