11:40am: The Marlins are gutting their coaching staff, as Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald reports that the entire staff has been informed it will not return for the 2025 season. Mish notes that there are a couple “exceptions” who have been told there’s some interest in a reunion, but even that’s dependent on the hiring of the incoming manager and any preferences that person may have. Specifically, Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base reports that bench coach Luis Urueta and first base/outfield coach Jon Jay have been told there’s interest in a reunion, pending the managerial search. Both will be free to pursue other opportunities in the meantime, however.

All of this aligns with a report last night from Isaac Azout of Fish On First, who tweeted that the Marlins’ firings were being described to him as a “blood bath” that extended to the coaching staff, clubhouse attendants, performance staff and more.

Manager Skip Schumaker already departed the organization over the weekend. His impending exit was one of the worst-kept secrets around the league. The former big league utilityman and Cardinals bench coach was hired by former Marlins GM Kim Ng and won NL Manager of the Year honors last season in his rookie effort. His original two-year contract included an option for the 2025 season. However, after the Marlins hired Rays GM Peter Bendix as their new president of baseball operations, prompting Ng to walk away from the organization. Schumaker reportedly voiced frustration with the club’s direction — understandably so, given last year’s playoff berth — and management agreed to void the 2025 club option on his deal in order to allow him to explore new opportunities.

In addition to Urueta and Jay, today’s news presumably indicates that hitting coach John Mabry, assistant hitting coaches Bill Mueller and Jason Hart, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr., third base coach Griffin Benedict, infield coach Jody Reed, bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda, bullpen coordinator Rob Flippo and field coordinator Rod Barajas will all be at the very least free to pursue other opportunities, if not dismissed outright.

Among the group, Stottlemyre figures to be a particularly hot commodity on the coaching market. He’s spent a dozen years on big league coaching staffs, serving as both a pitching coach and bullpen coach in addition to prior stints as a minor league pitching coordinator. He’s worked with the D-backs and Mariners organizations in the past but has spent the past seven years as the pitching coach in Miami, building a strong reputation along the way.

While the Marlins have regularly been a doormat in the NL East — with the exception of the 2020 and 2023 seasons — a strong core of touted young pitching has been a hallmark of the team in recent years. Stottlemyre alone isn’t to credit for that, of course, but his influence on the staff and the organization’s pitching development as a whole is clear. Cepeda, it should be noted, has been in lockstep with Stottlemyre throughout his time in the organization. He was hired as the Marlins’ bullpen coach back in 2019. The two have worked alongside one another for seven years.

That’s not to say others on the staff won’t be coveted free agents in their own right. Urueta spent 15 years in the D-backs system, rose to their bench coach under Torey Lovullo, and has interviewed for MLB managerial posts in the past. Mabry and Mueller, in addition to lengthy big league careers, have extensive coaching backgrounds across multiple organizations. Barajas, who also had a lengthy big league career, has served as the bench coach and interim manager of the Padres and has interviewed for various managerial posts in recent years (in addition to several years as a minor league manager in San Diego’s system). Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat speculates that Jay could wind up a target of the Cardinals, for whom he played six MLB seasons — though Jay could also join Schumaker wherever he lands his next managerial assignment.

Broadly speaking, the Miami coaching staff can hardly be faulted for the disastrous record this season. Bendix spent most of the 2023-24 offseason focused on reshaping the baseball operations department and did little to augment the actual Marlins roster. Injuries waylaid much of the pitching staff, and when Miami opened the season with a significant losing streak, the front office wasted little time in waving the white flag. Luis Arraez was traded to San Diego in early May, signaling exactly what type of direction the new baseball ops staff would be taking. No manager or coaching staff could’ve spun the ’24 Marlins into a contender, and other clubs will surely be cognizant of that as they show interest in a wave of newly available coaching talent.

Mabry, 53, enters his second season on the Marlins’ coaching staff and his 12th year as a big league coach overall. A veteran of 14 Major League seasons who batted .263/.322/.405 from 1994-2007, Mabry joined the Cardinals’ coaching staff as an assistant hitting coach in 2012 and was later promoted to lead hitting coach in St. Louis as well — a role he held until the 2018 season. He also spent three years on the Royals’ staff prior to joining the Fish. He and Marlins skipper/2023 NL Manager of the Year Skip Schumaker were teammates with the Cards during Schumaker’s rookie season in 2005.

The 52-year-old Mueller will return to a big league dugout for the first time since 2018 — the final of his four seasons as Cardinals’ assistant hitting coach. He overlapped with Mabry throughout that entire tenure, so the two have plenty of familiarity with one another and a strong working relationship. More recently, Mueller worked with the Nationals’ player development department from 2022-23, and he’s also spent time as a special assistant and scout with the Dodgers in addition to a one-year run as the Cubs’ hitting coach in 2014. In parts of 11 seasons from 1996-2006, Mueller batted .291/.373/.425. He won a World Series with the 2004 Red Sox and won a Silver Slugger with Boston in 2003, when he hit .326/.398/.540 en route to that aforementioned AL batting crown.

Rod Barajas has been named the team’s field coordinator, while Jon Jay is the new first base and outfield coach. Brant Brown has been tabbed as Miami’s new hitting coach, and he’ll be assisted by John Mabry. Jody Reed will serve as the Marlins’ third base and infield coach, and Luis Urueta will take over as Schumaker’s bench coach. Griffin Benedict, meanwhile, has been hired as a quality assurance coach.

Since retiring as a player following the 2012 season, the 47-year-old Barajas has spent nine years with the Padres in various coaching roles and was also the Angels’ Major League catching coordinator in 2022. The former catcher briefly served as the Padres’ interim manager for their final eight games in 2019 and was also San Diego’s bench coach. Barajas hit .235/.284/.407 and won a World Series ring with the D-backs during a 14-year playing career.

Jay, 37, was an active player up through the 2021 season and will now take his first big league coaching role. A longtime teammate of Schumaker in St. Louis, he’s a Miami native who spent a dozen seasons playing at the MLB level from 2010-21. Along the way, Jay hit .283/.348/.373 while logging extensive time at all three outfield positions.

Brown, 51, played in parts of five big league seasons and saw a brief run with the then-Florida Marlins in 2000. He’s spent the past three seasons as a co-hitting coach with the Dodgers and has previously held coaching gigs with the both the Mariners and Rangers. He batted .247/.301/.445 in 424 big league games.

Mabry, who’ll take over as the new assistant hitting coach for the Fish, is no stranger to big league coaching. He spent seven seasons with the Cardinals, first as assistant coach and then as the lead hitting coach, and he’s been on the Royals’ staff for each of the past three seasons. The 52-year-old played parts of 14 seasons in the Majors, hitting .263/.322/.405 and, in his final season with the Cardinals in 2005, briefly overlapped with Schumaker, who made his big league debut with St. Louis that same season.

The 60-year-old Reed had an 11-year playing career himself, batting .279/.340/.350 while spending the majority of his time with the Red Sox. He’s since had minor league coaching and development positions with the Dodgers and Yankees, including a nine-year stint with the latter.

Urueta is one of two newcomers who doesn’t have big league playing experience, though despite being just 41 years of age, he joins Miami with a lengthy coaching history. After spending more than a decade coaching and managing in the D-backs’ minor league system, Urueta was added to the big league staff in 2018 and eventually elevated to the position of bench coach. He returned to a minor league role for the 2022 season, however.

Benedict was with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate in 2021-22, serving as the team’s hitting coach. Prior to that, he spent 10 seasons as a bullpen catcher and instructor with San Diego. Benedict played a pair of minor league seasons and also spent seven years working for the Padres’ scouting department.

ESPN’s Enrique Rojas first reported Urueta’s hiring back in November, while the hiring of Barajas and Reed were reported at the same time by Jon Heyman of the New York Post and Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald.

He continued working with minor league affiliates of the Angels and Dodgers over the next few years, making it up to Triple-A where he took charge of Oklahoma City between 2016-18. He joined the Angels major league staff at the beginning of the year, succeeding Jose Molina as catching coach. Now he’ll take over third base coach duties on Phil Nevin’s staff.

Here’s some other coaching news from around the big leagues:

• The Dodgers are promoting Aaron Bates to hitting coach, where he’ll work alongside Robert Van Scoyoc, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman revealed (h/t Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). Bates had a brief stint in the majors in 2009, getting four hits in five games for the Red Sox. He bounced around the minor leagues plenty, but retired after the 2014 season with the Dodgers. While he played just 11 games that year, it was an entrance into the Dodgers organization that Bates hasn’t left. He held a series of jobs at their minor league affiliates before joining the big league team as assistant hitting coach in 2019. His promotion comes on the back of the departure of Brant Brown, who’s joined the Marlins.
• The Mets have extended Glenn Sherlock’s contract through until 2024 as part of his shift from bench coach to catching instructor, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post. Sherlock played seven years in the minor leagues back in the 1980s, making it as high as Triple-A. He’s held coaching positions with the Yankees, Diamondbacks and Pirates. Sherlock initially joined the Mets in 2017, serving as their third base coach and catching instructor before departing for Pittsburgh in 2020. He returned at the start of this year as bench coach, but will make way for Eric Chavez in that position.
• New Marlins manager Skip Schumaker is bringing in former Cardinals hitting coach John Mabry into his team as assistant hitting coach, according to Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. Mabry spent eight years with the Cardinals as part of a 14 year big league career (that also included a stop at the Marlins) that ended in 2007. Mabry worked with the Cardinals between 2012-18 as a hitting coach, but left when then-manager Mike Matheny was fired. He’s since been working for the Royals. Schumaker and Mabry played together on the 2005 Cardinals team.

Any team that signs Tsutsugo will have to pay his former team, the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, a release fee that will be determined by the size of Tsutsugo’s eventual MLB contract.  The 30-day posting window for Tsutsugo to find a contract in North America ends on December 19, so there is still lots of time for one of his five known suitors or perhaps other teams to strike a deal.

Here’s more from the AL Central….

• Morosi reports on another potential Detroit target in another tweet, noting that the Tigers and Angels are two of the teams interested in Josh Lindblom.  The right-hander is looking to return to the majors on the heels of two outstanding seasons in South Korea’s KBO League, and some very impressive spin rate numbers on his four-seam fastball.  Morosi writes that Lindblom has already received multi-year offers from more than one team, which isn’t surprising given how Lindblom would be an inexpensive yet high-ceiling addition to a lot of pitching staffs (such as rebuilding teams like the Tigers or hopeful contenders like the Angels).
• The Royals announced their 2020 coaching staff under new manager Mike Matheny, with a few new faces in the mix and some familiar faces returning in some different roles.  Pitching coach Cal Eldred and hitting coach Terry Bradshaw will remain in their positions, while Pedro Grifol moves to bench coach from his past quality control/catching coach job, and Vance Wilson goes from bullpen coach to third base coach.  Rusty Kuntz will become the Royals’ first base coach for the third time in his 12-year stint as a member of the K.C. organization, while Larry Carter will take over as bullpen coach after 22 years in various minor league roles for the club.  John Mabry joins the staff as a Major League coach, after working under Matheny as the Cardinals’ hitting coach when Matheny was the St. Louis manager.  Former coaches Dale Sveum and Mike Jirschele will remain with the Royals in as-yet-unassigned new roles.
• The Indians’ homegrown pitching has been the backbone of the team’s success in recent years, and The Athletic’s Zack Meisel (subscription link) looks at how the organization has been able to turn the likes of Corey Kluber, Mike Clevinger, Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale, and other relatively unheralded — none were drafted before the third round by the Tribe or other teams — arms into top-flight hurlers.  Ruben Niebla, formerly the minor league pitching coordinator and now the big league team’s assistant pitching coach, has been a key figure in the system of finding what works for each pitcher, getting the pitcher to buy into the strategy, and then tailoring that development through all levels of the pitcher’s trip up the organizational ladder.  “That communication is vitally important to us, that we make sure we have continuity and the same message as he goes through. There’s no confusion. It’s clear,” Niebla said.

This rumor is not yet confirmed.  A million bucks sounds a bit high coming off an off year, although Mabry earned $725,000 in 2005.  He was a spectacular role player in 2004, hitting .296/.363/.504 in 87 games.  It may be that Mabry was given more playing time than is good for him in ’05.

Mabry’s versatility would indicate that Jose Macias might be cut from the 40 man roster.  Macias made $800,000 in 2005 while playing many positions, none of them well.

Update: Bruce Levine of ESPN Radio 1000 is reporting that the Cubs have indeed signed John Mabry to a one-year deal.

Thanks to Alex