There hasn’t been a lot of concrete information about the Marlins’ managerial search, but one formal candidate has now been identified, as Isaac Azout of Fish On First (X link) reports that Tigers bench coach George Lombard will interview about the position this week.
It is the second time in as many days that Lombard has been linked to a managerial opening, as the White Sox also reportedly have interest in speaking with the 49-year-old. Since the Tigers’ surprising playoff run only just ended last Saturday, it makes sense that Lombard is only now becoming available for interviews.
Lombard has some distant past ties to the Miami organization, as he played in the Marlins’ farm system back in 2008 but didn’t see any time with the club at the MLB level. His playing career ran from 1994-2009, and included 144 Major League games with four different teams from 1998-2006. Lombard played in 13 games with the Rays in 2006, though this predated the time that Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix spent in the Tampa front office.
Lombard’s only managerial experience came in the form of two seasons (2011-12) in rookie ball, running the Red Sox Gulf Coast League affiliate. Lombard spent six seasons overall working for Boston as a manager, coach, and coordinator in the minors, then briefly worked in a minor league coordinator role for the Braves in 2015 before the big leagues came calling.
After just a couple of months with Atlanta, Lombard was hired as the Dodgers’ first base coach, a role he held from 2016-20. The first two of Lombard’s seasons in Los Angeles overlaps with Gabe Kapler’s stint as the Dodgers’ director of player development, which creates an interesting link to the Marlins since Kapler is now Miami’s assistant general manager.
Lombard won a World Series ring with L.A. in 2020 and was then hired by the Tigers as their bench coach during the 2020-21 offseason. The responsibilities of a bench coach vary from team to team, but the Detroit News’ Chris McCosky writes that Lombard’s chief duties include offensive game-planning, as well as coaching baserunning and outfield play.
The bench coach hire came after the Tigers also interviewed Lombard for their own managerial vacancy at the time, which was filled by A.J. Hinch. Lombard had previously been on the Pirates’ radar in their managerial search a year prior (before Derek Shelton was hired), and the Red Sox also reportedly had some interest in speaking with Lombard before Alex Cora was re-hired as manager in November 2020.
If hired as the Marlins’ next skipper, Lombard will be tasked with helping turn around a team in the midst of an extensive rebuild both on and off the field. The Marlins made a wide range of firings after the season, letting go of not just Skip Schumaker’s coaching staff but also the team’s conditioning and training crew and the clubhouse attendant staff. Presumably the new manager would have a lot of leeway in hand-picking people to fill these roles, with Bendix and Kapler obviously also having plenty of input.
Speaking of Kapler, Azout also notes that the Marlins have some interest in speaking with Giants assistant coach Alyssa Nakken about the managerial role. Nakken has been working with San Francisco for over a decade, and her five-year stint on the coaching staff began after Kapler was hired as the Giants’ manager prior to the 2020 season. Her role on the staff bears some similarity to Lombard’s skillset, as Nakken’s duties also included outfield instruction and baserunning.
Nakken became the first woman known to ever receive a proper interview for a Major League managerial position when she spoke to the Giants about their vacancy last October. Obviously history would be made if the Marlins or any other team hired her to run their dugout, though Miami is particularly noteworthy since the organization was also the first to hire a woman (Kim Ng) as general manager. The 34-year-old Nakken would also become the youngest current big league manager.
Apart from Lombard and Nakken, Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz and former Marlins bench coach Luis Urueta have also been mentioned as candidates under consideration as Miami’s next manager. Former Marlins pitcher Anibal Sanchez has also reached out to the club about the position, but it isn’t known if the Marlins reciprocated that interest.
It sounds like perhaps Lombard doesn’t interview well. Either that or he’s unlucky. Or both.
I used to feel that way about DeMarlo Hale.
Wonder what they have in comon…
The fish may be in disarray but they still have more championships than the choke job Padres
Terry
The Padres did not choke. Two heavyweight teams played and only one of them could win.
Miami and San Diego are both nice places to live. Maybe San Diego if you are married with kids and Miami if you are single.
The Marlins next manager, I mean, sucker
Yeah cause being paid to live in Miami and manage baseball would be a dumb life choice. What is wrong with you Fred? Wake up
Yep, getting a bunch of money to live in Miami and manage 1 of the 30 MLB teams is such a terrible life.
Not to mention the opportunity to coach consistently strong talent the Marlins always manage to develop.
Has anyone considered Rod Barajas?
No.
Yes. Mrs. Barajas. And all the little Barajases.
Soooo it doesn’t matter who manages the marlins or the white Sox.. they don’t spend any $$ and they aren’t good so Jesus Christ himself could be the manager .. they aren’t wining a thing .. they don’t prioritize it.. who wants to play there .. no one goes to marlins games and the white Sox stadium is in a demilitarized zone .. it’s a shame because Chicago is a great sports city and the white Sox are a legendary franchise but they are a joke now.. marlins have always been a joke they’ve just stepped in it a few times.. if the white Sox are sold I’d look into moving them
To a better neighborhood and spend some money.. the marlins I’d move all together no one goes to Miami to watch baseball they go to party and hit the beach .. move the marlins to Tennessee or Oklahoma or Iowa or some heartland place where baseball is a thing and change the name imo
Good thing you’re not making the decision. It seems like ESPN is your source for information, so that’s not a thing that will be done with a business decision.
@bigdaddyyardstick
Hey, pal – Miami is a great city and an excellent baseball town. Marlins fans across the 305 will pack the park once they see management making an effort to build a sustainable winner. You’d know that if you lived here. But you don’t, do you?
As far as the Marlins moving, dream on. The lease is long-term and unbreakable. Tennessee? Oklahoma? Good luck with an EXPANSION franchise.
Kind of ironic that the Marlins and Rockies entered the league at the same time. The Marlins seem to be in rebuilding mode every 2-3 years. New owners, GM’s managers. Fire sale of players. While the Rockies have been an island of stability. Yet it hasn’t worked out for either team. Perhaps the Marlins should show a little patience and not change philosophies every 2-3 years. And Colorado should act with a little more urgency and make the necessary changes. Not since Connie Mack has a manager kept his job after so many losing seasons. And Mack owned the team
lol. Marlins have two World Series rings and Rockies have zero fella. Know your stuff.
And the Marlins destroyed their 1997 team pretty much as soon as they won it. They waited about a year before tearing up their 2003 championship team. Which proves my point- they can’t sustain success. Since 2003 the Marlins have only made the playoffs once in a full season once-2023. And then they let their GM go and reworked their manager’s contract so he could leave after this year. Again no stability. The Rockies problem is the opposite. They never change course but they occasionally should.
@geo Marlins have mostly been a dumpster fire aside from the handful of winning seasons and 2 championship. But Rockies have achieved absolutely nothing since inception
I wasn’t praising the Rockies. My point which apparently some people didn’t get was that both teams have been unsuccessful but by different strategies. Frankly both franchises which came into existence the same year are poorly run.
For the Rockies, I think the problem is and has always been that no one can figure out how to win in the high elevation.
For the Marlins, I’ve always have said that MLB screwed the pooch in expansion with Florida. They were fine with expanding to the Marlins. The problem was expanding again just a few years later, before the Marlins had a chance to establish their fan base and fan reach in Florida. For decades, Florida was mostly Braves Country. Then the Marlins came in and were starting to take the South Florida market away from the Braves and beginning to extend into Central Florida, which was essential. But MLB expanded again a few years later, thus disrupting that. And the Rays have suffered even worse, because they had to compete with the Marlins trying to establish their fan reach while dealing with trying to pull fans away from the Braves, who were in the midst of that 1990s dominance. MLB should have waited until the next expansion opportunity to add Tampa…and given the other franchise with Arizona to another area, like Portland, Charlotte, Tennessee, Vegas or even New Orleans or other locale. Then, with the next expansion, the Marlins would’ve been established, and their reach clearly known, which would’ve allowed Tampa to move right in to fill the gaps between the Marlins and Braves reaches.
Further to the Marlins, MLB failed with allowing the 1997 fire sale. They could’ve blocked those trades for the “good of the game”. They then could’ve forced Huizenga to sell like they did a decade later with the McCourts. After Huizenga, MLB screwed the Marlins again with allowing John Henry, who had been rejected by the NHL due to his inability to show proof of his ability to have the funds to own the Tampa Lightning. Then, when word broke out that Henry would be interested in selling the Marlins since his cries of poverty could never allow him to fund his own stadium, MLB screwed the Marlins probably worse than they ever did. At that time, Gustavo Cisneros stepped up (years before joining a group for Loria’s sale) and made it clear that he wanted to purchase the Marlins and was already brokering a deal with Miami for him to purchase property to build a stadium with his own money because he wanted to make the Marlins his feature team on his Latin American television empire – even stating that he wanted the Marlins to be “the team of the Americas”. At the same time, word broke out about the Expos and Red Sox potential sales, which had Mark Cuban jump up ready to take a shot at MLB ownership again. However, Bud Selig got together with his ‘good ole boy network’ buddies Loria and Henry, and made the deal that, in an effort to block Mark Cuban from being a problem with MLB’s ownership sales, they also blocked Cisneros from being able to bid on the Marlins…when Selig, Loria and John Henry decided that Loria would take the Marlins, Henry would take the Red Sox (amazingly finding money to pay for it after his claims of poverty in Miami), and that MLB would take over the in-limbo Expos who later became the Nats. But MLB wasn’t done with screwing the Marlins. The next move was about 15 years later when, after it was clear that Loria was an unfit owner (because his time in Montreal didn’t prove it enough yet), Loria finally was ready to sell (after he ran up the tab with contracts to leave for the next owner). There were three main groups looking to bid – 1) a Jeb Bush group which included a much older and less motivated Gustavo Cisneros; 2) Jorge Mas (who had the deepest pockets of the ownership hopefuls, and a local Miami guy); and the Jeter led group mostly funded by Bruce Sherman (and included another sports icon in NBA legend Michael Jordan). So, MLB once again failed the Marlins by, through what has been debated many times as to reason, Loria sold the Marlins to the Jeter-led group…when most expected and there have been many reports that it was Jorge Mas that had won the or earned or deserved the bid and/or was prevented from getting the chance to outbid the Jeter-led group…which would’ve led Jorge Mas to being the Marlins owner instead of Bruce Sherman. Anyone wants to check Mas’ worth, you can check it out and see why there have been questions as to who the Jeter/Sherman group were sold the team over Mas. The current Marlins rebuild would not be happening as it has had Mas been the owner because he has far more than Bruce Sherman. He’s at about $2.1 billion while Bruce Sherman is worth $500 million. And just for kicks, Jefferey Loria is worth $500 million, while Gustavo Cisneros, at the time of his death in 2023, was worth about $1.1 billion. Shall we mention Mark Cuban’s worth of aboput $5.7 billion – the guy that MLB’s ‘Good Ole Boy Network’ absolutely has never wanted in MLB? Yeah, this is what MLB has done to the Marlins…and with Mark Cuban, to other teams.
@BannedMarlinsFanBase
Once again, my friend, you’re right on target w. your Marlins history lesson. Very perceptive & totally accurate. Should be required reading for non-Marlins fans who don’t want to sound like idiots when they post their comments.
Lou brown?
Curuous to see who the Marlins hire.It’ll say a lot.
When they made Gabe Kapler the asst. GM.. well, I’m still deciding which bridge to jump off