Skip Schumaker will not return as Miami’s manager in 2025, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. His tenure with the Fish concludes after two seasons.
The Marlins announced during Friday night’s win over the Blue Jays that Schumaker would return home to attend to a family health matter. Bench coach Luis Urueta will be the interim manager for the final two games of the season, tweets Isaac Azout of Fish on First. Passan writes that Schumaker informed Miami players that he would not be back next season after tonight’s game.
That couldn’t have come as much of a surprise to anyone on the roster. Schumaker has seemingly been on his way out of South Florida for months. Former general manager Kim Ng hired Schumaker — who’d been the bench coach in St. Louis — to replace Don Mattingly going into the 2023 season. He’d initially signed a two-year deal with a club option for 2025. Once the Marlins and Ng parted ways last offseason, Schumaker reportedly expressed frustration with the organization’s direction. The Marlins agreed to void the ’25 option as a result, giving the 44-year-old the chance to pursue other opportunities after this season.
The front office overhaul came within weeks of Miami surprisingly punching their ticket to the postseason. The Fish overcame a negative run differential to win 84 games and snag a Wild Card spot in 2023. While they were swept by Philadelphia in the first round, the unexpected postseason berth earned Schumaker the NL’s Manager of the Year award in his debut season. It was the team’s first playoff appearance in a 162-game schedule since their 2003 World Series title.
Owner Bruce Sherman was nevertheless dissatisfied with the organization’s recent misses in the draft and some ill-fated free agent moves (e.g. Avisaíl García, Jean Segura). Sherman tabbed former Rays GM Peter Bendix as president of baseball operations — a move that would’ve relegated Ng to second in the front office hierarchy. After Sherman informed Ng of his plans to hire a baseball ops president, she declined her end of a mutual option and moved on.
Bendix never seemed confident that the Marlins could replicate last year’s success. The Fish had a quiet winter — their only MLB free agent signing was a $5MM rebound flier on Tim Anderson — and seemed ticketed for another rebuild. A disastrous 0-9 start sealed their fate within the first two weeks. Miami traded Luis Arraez in early May and followed up with a major deadline sell-off involving most of their relievers, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trevor Rogers, Josh Bell and Bryan De La Cruz. Were it not for a devastating series of rotation injuries, they’d likely have torn things down further. Jesús Luzardo and Braxton Garrett would have been clear trade candidates if healthy.
Bendix’s skepticism about the short-term outlook has been borne out in this year’s results. The Fish lost 100 games for the fourth time in franchise history. They’ll either finish with the second- or third-worst record in MLB. (They’re one game behind the Rockies at the bottom of the National League.) At the same time, it’s entirely unsurprising that Schumaker preferred not to embark on a multi-year rebuild orchestrated by a new front office just months after leading the team to the playoffs.
There should be plenty of interest in Schumaker’s services. His aggregate 144-178 record wasn’t great, but that’s far more a testament to this year’s roster than an indictment of his managerial ability. His work in 2023 earned ample praise. The White Sox and Reds have managerial vacancies after firing Pedro Grifol and David Bell, respectively. Schumaker has been loosely linked to both jobs before his contract with the Marlins has expired.
Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote a few weeks ago that he was among the Sox’s top targets. Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on Friday that Schumaker and former Cubs’ skipper David Ross are among the preliminary options under consideration for the Reds’ front office. It’s possible other jobs will open once the regular season concludes.
In Miami, Bendix begins his first managerial search as a baseball operations leader. The front office has presumably been preparing for a while, as they were no doubt aware of the probability that Schumaker would depart. It’s the next opportunity for Bendix and his group to put their stamp on the franchise as they go into another rebuilding year.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Rsox
Pretty sure this was the worst kept secret in MLB consideration the voided option at the beginning of the season.
I expect Schumaker will be the next Skip(per) of the Reds…
MLB Top 100 Commenter
I disagree with “Bendix’s skepticism… has been borne out.” The tear down was done so quickly that we did not get to see how the prior roster wound fare. I don’t think the fish were making the playoffs, but a team there was no reason to trade Arraez for so little that soon. I strongly believe that the fish could have got that much or more for Arraez a full six weeks later. How about the blushing Bride last night? Two pops!
Reds2024
Schumaker already knows his phone will ring within an hour of the final out tomorrow from the Reds.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
More likely, he received an offer before leaving.
SweetBabyRayKingsThickThighs
He’s got future Twins manager written all over him
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
He would be the next cardinals manager if the cardinals did the right thing and fired marmol
Warden of the North(acoss13)
Reds should be all over this guy. He comes from the Cardinal way when it was a success, and would be a great fit to guide the team’s young core of players to play championship baseball.
BlueSkies_LA
I suppose nobody is buying the family health matter?
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Could be real. No shame either way. I thought Ng made a great hire of Skip and some great trades and non-trades. I thought the Soler signing was ok, but yeah, Avisail was a disaster and Segura was both a disaster and a head-scratcher with the musical chairs infield. Bendix has yet to prove himself any better or worse than Ng because with their owner, the fish payroll is limited and the margin for error is low. I do give Bendix props for trading Rogers for Norby. A healthy Alcantara and Luzardo will go a long way to getting back to 75-80 wins.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
“Skip Schumaker is leaving the Marlins due to a death in his family,” reported Marlins beat writer Craig Mish on X, formerly Twitter. “He is not expected to return before the end of the season. In all likelihood his time managing the Marlins has come to a close.”
DarrenDreifortsContract
The Marlins shouldn’t return to Florida.
Thefrogsaregey
The ads for marlin baseball are funny. All about the opposing teams and how the stadium is a dance party
Domingo111
I like what bendix is doing, they need to rebuild but it will (and should) be a multi year tank job and I understand that skip doesn’t want to go through that especially since it is unknown how much money the ownership will spend to support the new core when it is ready in 2-3 years.