TODAY: Braves bench coach Walt Weiss turned down an interview request from the Marlins, according to Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Weiss posted a 283-365 record as the Rockies’ manager from 2013-16, and he just completed his fourth season as Atlanta’s bench coach. A 14-year Major League veteran best known for his time with the great Athletics teams of the late 80’s and early 90’s, Weiss spent a season with the Marlins in 1993, playing on the team’s inaugural roster.
OCTOBER 20: Astros bench coach Joe Espada and Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro have landed a second interview for the vacant Marlins managerial post, according to Craig Mish of SportsGrid. It was reported last week that Espada was interviewing for the position for the first time, but it’s the first reporting of the Marlins interest in Quatraro. Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol is the other known interviewee, although it’s unclear if he was asked back for a second time. Mish notes that a number of additional interviews have not been reported, so while there may well be a number of other candidates in play, the fact that Espada and Quatraro are interviewing a second time indicates they are starting to narrow down their search.
Both Espada and Quatraro have long been viewed as managers-in-waiting, and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times suggests Quatraro could also be in the mix for the vacant Royals, White Sox and Rangers jobs. Espada, meanwhile, has already interviewed for the White Sox position.
It’s not the first season that Espada, 47, has drawn managerial interest. The Puerto Rico native has been a respected member of the Astros coaching staff since 2017, and has had interest from the Mets, Cubs, A’s, Twins and Giants in recent years.
Similarly, Quatraro, 48, is heading into yet another off-season where his name is heavily linked with managerial posts. The A’s, Giants and Pirates were linked with Quatraro in recent years, while it was reported he was a finalist for the Mets position last year before they opted for Buck Showalter.
LMFAO!!!!!!
Yes. Me too. Bad part is one of them will get the job.
Both were asked to put in a blind sealed bid , as to salary request. Lol lowest bid wins.
Meh….so when you’re done laughing- who would u hire instead ?? When you don’t know how to win-hiring someone who does makes sense to me.
For this club they need someone with experience. Not a newbie or unsuccessful former manager. This club needs help and the time for excuses is over. No more trying this and trying that.
That worked well the last time they tried that…
You could name any person out there “who knows how to win” and if the Marlins hire him he will lose.
What I didn’t mention is how this franchise isn’t supposed to win. Ever. They won’t hire anyone who is serious about winning. Pirates Reds maybe a few others will never do anything as long as the system puts money in the owners pockets without accountability.
This is going to be a tough call for some guys who have never managed. If they take this job they may never get a chance to win with a functional franchise.
AGREED!/I concur. They are obviously hard up..
It seems like it would be a smart decision to hire former Astro coaches just for the tips on how to protect your signs. Everyone knows Houston was the best at decoding signs. You want to beat the best, you have to learn how to stop them at their own game.
Why not just hire the best AAA manager? He will be acquiring an AAA offense and bullpen!
Said the Cubs fan….
You realize teams don’t use signs anymore, right?
Wow, they’re sweating for the role.
What I wrote under the other Marlins article. The same applies to Matt Quatraro……
Those 2 men have been working with some of the best analytic data in MLB for years. It’s a big reason why they’re successful.
Why would anyone think they can go to what is – no offense to Marlins fans – an obviously backwards analytic franchise and be successful.
I get that maybe Ms. Ng wants to go the analytic route. But we’re talking a minimum of 3 years to even begin to change that organization (look at how long the Orioles restructuring has taken). It’s going to be total culture shock to almost all those currently in Baseball Ops…and there will be resistance.
The Rays had their system in place (and modified from the Friedman years) when they hired Kevin Cash. The Astros are currently winning with Dusty Baker – that had little, if any, strong exposure to managing using analytics. As with Cash and the Rays – the systems were in place, and that took years to develop.
Sort of putting the cart before the horse – as the Tigers did in hiring A.J. Hinch.
The Marlins have a head start with young major league talent on their roster.
They have 5 more pitchers than Baltimore ever had for Elias. A farm system with talent in it already too.
If they canned NG and hired a James Click, if the Astros canned him—they’d have a chance to be pretty good in that division in 2 years.
I think she’s on thin ice. But you know not the place I’d ideally pick. or perhaps she’ll poach a couple execs for the FO to beef up her staff analytically. The marlins have talent if they can develop it.
I think if the Marlins are going heavy on analytics, getting a good analytics guy as the head of the team is absolutely necessary. The idea would be hiring more stats folks and guys who man high speed cameras to find useful things to work on. That means hiring more people for those jobs, and it means retaining them. Notably, you’re not going to succeed at that if that department feels like none of their work matters because the manager is just ignoring it and acting as a wall between the fruits of your work and the players. They’ll just leave or not care about doing good work.
You also need to let him hire like minded coaches, who will train players and assistant coaches to have similar mindsets. That’s the only way you can build up that sort of “culture” that embraces those things. You can’t do that without the right manager.
The Marlins gig isn’t going to be an ideal gig for anyone. Quatraro might be set up to be 2 or 3 years only and then fired. But from an org perspective that is okay. Because then the next manager can reap the fruits of that approach. As long as Ng sticks with the plan.
Orioles_Magic & Col_chestbridge;
I agree with both of you. However….
I spent my career developing, maintaining, and working with computer systems and people using them. It’s an extremely difficult and frustrating process until it takes hold. It doesn’t work from the middle around or the bottom up – it works from the top down. Your two teams had Mike Elias & Chris Antonetti (Cleveland’s processes took off after Shapiro left – he majored in History at Princeton). Both had been educated in using analytics and methodologies in sports, and had experience as assistants before they took over organizations. They could oversee was was being implemented, and assure all departments had qualified people in them that could work with and add value to TQM / Continuous Improvement processes.
I’ve seen people at high levels with good intentions try to implement massive systems. But if they hadn’t experienced working in a successful implementation, they could easily be fooled by people in the organization playing politics and making power plays.
I assume Kim Ng was exposed to MLB organizations computer systems when she worked for the Dodgers. But she left there in 2011 to work for the Commissioners Office. The Marlins hired her in 2020, now it’s 2022. That’s multiple lifetimes in how technology has changed – and I doubt that the Commissioners Office was using systems that Baseball Ops departments use.
My point is that it doesn’t matter what players are on the roster today. It doesn’t matter who manages this or that department. It takes the person at the top to have the hands-on knowledge and experience to coordinate the operation. It’s going to take at least 3 years to debug processes and get people on board and in sync using them. What players they have on the ML roster today mean nothing. In the Marlins case, they’re so far behind the Phillies, Braves, and Mets that even if they added 3-4 all-star FA’s that agreed to come over and play for a minimum salary, that team would still be fighting with the Nationals for 4th place in the NL East.
Espada and Quatraro used the systems and had input to them. They didn’t develop and implement them.
I agree with the larger point that it’s top down. My basic assumption is the Ng is an analytics oriented person. I had thought that her time in MLB’s offices was something related, hence her being hired by the Marlins in the first place. If that’s wrong, you’re 100% correct in that the Marlins need more of that person up top for this kind of hiring to work. I don’t really have in depth knowledge of what Ng is like, so I’m not really trying to commentate on that.
I think it comes back a bit to your comment earlier on culture shock and resistance – the best way to get over those speed bumps is to put people with the right mindsets in place. Quatraro is definitely the guy for that job. Buy if Ng isn’t the right person the whole thing won’t work.
Give espada a job already. More than qualified, wish we had him SF.
Yep. They sure bungled that hire. Tommy LaStella has no business being a DH, or taking a spot on the 40 man for that matter.
It would hurt to lose Espada. Best scenario for Hou is Baker riding 2022 sucess into the sunset and Espada getting his due turn.
Espada would be a perfect fit for the Marlins IMO.
Hire me. I’ll make sure to get the Marlins 1st round draft picks year after year.
I hope the White Sox don’t sign him, you can’t have a bald guy as a manager.
Not on the White Sox anyways.
Bruh…
White Sox are interviewing Ozzie Guillen after having TLR. They really can’t talk about bad managerial picks.
Reward the cheater , cheating works and is worth it is the message here kids
Espada started coaching with the Astros in 2018, after the cheating.
Please someone tell Ng to shave that stache.
Hirsutism is real.
Can’t decide if that is a bad attempt at a joke or if I should immediately mute you.
Espada is the right choice here
Sounds like the Astros want Dusty back next season if Espada wants to manage this might be his best opportunity.
Weiss was an interesting choice and probably one not many thought of.
Why not bring back Joe Girardi?
Katie Woo is reporting on The Athletic that Skip Schumaker has interviewed with the Marlins. I wonder where he stands in the hiring derby.
Mike Chiari of Bleacher Report talked about him being a favorite 3-4 days ago and the St Louis Post-Dispatch had an article about him interviewing yesterday. stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/report-c… Jon Paul Morosi tweeted about it too. twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/1583560232839839745