Although manager Don Mattingly is in the throes of his fourth straight trying season at the controls of the Marlins, it doesn’t appear his job is in jeopardy just yet. Mattingly will “probably” stay on through the end of the season, but it’s “likely” the team will replace him after that, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (video link).
The talent-starved Marlins have gone a league-worst 12-31 in 2019 and only mustered a 231-296 mark since hiring Mattingly, though it’s hard to fault him for the team’s failures. In 2016, Mattingly’s first year on the job, the Marlins won their most games since 2010 (79). However, the late-season death of ace Jose Fernandez cast a pall on the campaign and has continued to loom over the franchise. As they moved on without Fernandez, the 2017 Marlins – buoyed by an NL MVP-winning season from outfielder Giancarlo Stanton – did contend into the summer, but they tailed off in September to finish 77-85. As unimpressive as that record appears, it looks downright good compared to the direction the Marlins have gone in since.
One of co-owner Derek Jeter’s first acts of business after taking over the franchise from the loathed Jeffrey Loria was to conduct a firesale following the ’17 season. The decision to launch a full rebuild stripped the Marlins’ roster of a great outfield consisting of Stanton, Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna and starting second baseman Dee Gordon, all of whom were dealt in cost-cutting, farm system-bolstering moves. The Yelich trade looks especially egregious at the moment, largely because he went from an under-the-radar standout with the Marlins to a MVP-winning demigod with the Brewers. Meanwhile, the package the Marlins acquired for Yelich and team-friendly contract hasn’t yet yielded dividends in the majors.
Unsurprisingly, without their best outfielders and Gordon, the Marlins limped to 63 wins in 2018. Afterward, they shipped out another homegrown star – now-Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto – as he was unwilling to sign an extension with the club and was getting closer to free agency. That deal may pay off for Miami, which acquired a package featuring its No. 1 prospect, righty Sixto Sanchez, for Realmuto. That can’t be of much consolation to Mattingly right now, though. He’s in charge of a roster that got even weaker with Realmuto’s departure, after all, and the results bear that out.
Prior to his Marlins tenure, Mattingly oversaw much more respectable Dodgers teams from 2011-15. Mattingly’s time in LA could convince a manager-needy club to give him a chance if the Marlins do go in another direction sometime soon. Changing managers would be an especially interesting decision coming from Jeter, however, considering he and Mattingly are Yankees icons who were briefly teammates and still stand as the two most recent captains of the franchise.
Well it’s unfair overall but they’ll be doing Mattingly a favor.
Ok but it’s still worth asking whether Mattingly is any good as a manager.
What manager could win consistently with this roster? Its amazing they even won 63 games last season.
a lot of managers could lose a lot of games with a really bad team, but still show some sort of creativity with the game management or getting a few players to over-perform their expectation
Mattingly as a manager has just sort of been… there… even with the Dodgers
Mattingly has always been a terrible manager. I was very happy when the Dodgers let him walk.
IMO he was much better than Davey Johnson and a bit better than Jim Tracey with the Dodgers, and I believe he had the winning record to prove it. A team doesn’t go for monthlong stretches as the best team in baseball without decent management.
Unfair? This is the WORST manager ever, with a collar of stars in LA and couldn’t make it. And in Miami he blew so many games.
How many championships have they won since he left?
Beside, who would want to manage this dumpster fire?
Jack McKeon is 89YO and 1 of the best in fairly recent years with young kids. Shame he’s too old for the job. He probably doesn’t think so, was approaching 80 last time he took over, but they need someone good with youngsters and my think again would have been another ex-marlin, like Jeff Conine, but he’s another ex player popular with the organization jeter upset and quit as soon as the Sherman group took over.
This new ownership really has no clue. heads should roll at the top 1st.
I agree. Jeter is the biggest problem with this team.
Maybe Jeter will take over as manager?
You’d think Mattingly has enough money to not want to deal with the Marlins losing for the foreseeable future.
When the front office fails, fire the manager. One of the oldest unwritten rules in baseball.
One should fire a terrible manager as well. That is what Mattingly is.
You don’t like him, but you’re not an arbiter of truth. So there’s that!
I mean, the only defense for him you can muster is ‘he didn’t mess up the Dodgers completely’…
I guess one should, since front offices never seem to fire themselves.
I can see him managing the Nats when they inevitably fire Martinez before year 3
Hard to fault Don for a minimum wage roster
The realmuto trade wasn’t that bad, they also got alfaro who has been pretty good so far.
Some of the young pitchers have had some good outings. I’m interested to see how they do in the next couple years.
They probably could have gotten more for Realmuto than what they got
probably not. it seems like the marlins asked for similar packages from other teams and were turned down. my guess is they wouldnt have been able to get any better.
They turned down Soroka and Austin Riley
The Marlins are terrible, but so is Mattingly as a manager. They deserve each other.
Strange how it wasn’t really mentioned that Jeter absolutely gifted Stanton to his former Yankees in one of the worst deals in recent memory.
Stanton forced his way to the Yankees with his huge contract + no trade clause. Dont let ignorance rule your life
I retrospect, that contract is not as big considering the contract of Harper, Trout, etc. It’s now less than the going rate, and the advertising/publicity he brings makes up for it.
Haha gifted.. after he said no to the Cards & Giants. And then they had absolutely zero leverage
Exactly. The Marlins has 2 options left. The Dodgers and the Yankees. The Dodgers wanted no part of his contract so it was either take what Cashman offered or keep him and his contract.
His contract might not look horrible today but how well do you think a 6’6” 250lb injury prone player is going to age? Gifted? Lol Cashman gifted Jeter those prospects. Probably because he felt bad for him having to clean up Loria’s mess.
Link is to the wrong Jose Fernandez
Ppl are stupid to say Jeter gifted anyone anywhere. With all that money owed to Stanton and that no trade who were they suppose to get back ? His hands were tied. And don’t forget he had 2 different deals done one with the Giants other with the Cards that Stanton nixed before he ever made the deal with the Yankees. To be honest they were lucky to even get what they got for him.
Hind sight 20/20 yes the Yelich deal was bad. Ozuna & Gordon too. But the Realmuto deal seems like a very good one. So the jury is still out on Jeter. And I couldn’t stand Jeter as a player to me most overrated player I ever saw but I still am gonna give him a bigger body of work to prove himself in this role.
no one knew Yelich was going to win the MVP, but most alsp realized how flawed the prospects going to Miami were. Brinson was horrible in his short spell in the Majors with the Brewers, Diaz and Harrison have strikeout issues, etc. Brewers were not the team to send him to.
Yep. Most overrated 3000+ hits, future Hall of Famer ever.
How is the Realmuto deal a very good one? Alfaro hasn’t been bad but he’s no Realmuto. Sanchez is still just a prospect…..who has only played in 3 games this year due to injury. He’s been in the minors for 5 years and has only thrown 238 innings due to…..injuries.
You can’t over rate someone in the 3000 hit club. The most overrated player in history has to be Sammy Sosa.
Check what happened to NYY and LAD once they got rid of Mattingly. The guy is jinx. Gotta get rid of him
It’s impressive they won as many games as they did last year. Can’t blame him for ownership’s sell off.
If anything he should fire the Marlins.
In all honesty, he does a pretty good job with the team they provide him. He basically takes a bunch of high school quality players and wins a couple games against professionals. Sooooo….. In no way should they replace him before the end of the season imo. I think he’s a pretty good coach to build a future around and it’s not like the culture their will be better unless they replace him with a high energy Latino simply to draw some additional fans in.
Some rough spelling on my part there
Here’s a wild concept, bring in a popular soccer coach to coach the marlins when they are expected to compete again. Have real baseball coaches coach behind the scenes. Lol!!!! I mean, the marlins are such a joke, this might actually bring fans to the park lol!!!
Posada will be the manager next season
Don’t Remember LAD Being really That Fantastic before he got ,at least he won the division 3 times in row, what was the first time in Team history that happen and he got beat by the Mets who made the WS and by the Cubs who won the WS might would done something If Clayton Kershaw didn’t choke in the playoffs you act like he was Jim Tracy Davey Johnson or Bill Russell, he was 446 -363
Fact 1- when players suck, manager gets fired.
Fact 2 – players do what they want. In any sport. When was you actually saw a player give a damn ? Unless it’s a contract year. Then all of a sudden them come alive.
Fact 3 – It takes most minor Leaguers a year or so to adjust.
So if Jeter is dead set on being cheap and building for the future , why not bring up the AAA manager to grow with the players ?
*Just a thought… Why not give Wallach a shot ?
Mets, Nationals and Marlins all have managers with questionable futures…
Let’s not forget:
– Luis Castillo traded to the Reds for Dan Staily
– Chris Paddack traded to the Padres
– Andrew Heaney traded to the Angels
This team would have had a darn good pitching staff even after the loss of Jose. I agreed with trading Stanton and his ridiculous contract. If I recall correctly, they had a deal with the Cardinals, but he forced his way to the Yankees.
Obviously, the Yelich deal is the one that completely missed the mark. But, would he have put up these numbers in a lineup surrounded by nobody? In Milwaukee, he’s got Cain and Braun to help him out. He probably would have been pitched around constantly in Miami post-Stanton/Yelich/JT,
Well if they hadn’t traded him it wouldn’t have been post-Yelich. And Realmuto was still on the team last year.
Yelich’s numbers are going up due to the right field fence in Milwaukee, but he was quite good in Miami already.
there is no way this is mattingly’s fault the rebuild was jeters idea
Have some respect for the dead and at least link the right Jose Fernandez.
The system automatically links to player pages genius. Occasionally it links wrong. It is not disrespect. The reason they use the automated system is so they don’t have to look up player stat pages for every article. They will fix it.
Mattingly has always struck me as a poor in-game tactician as a manager, even with the Dodgers.
He is the exact opposite. Mattingly was never a bad in game strategist. He is just a terrible person to have as a team leader.
Ah! Interesting.
Being that jeter gutted the team it’s always falls on the manager,mattingly is a class act that was in put in charge of a circus