4:55pm: The Rangers have hired former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker as a senior advisor to president of baseball operations Chris Young, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News on X. Grant adds that Luis Urueta, who was bench coach during Schumaker’s tenure in Miami, is expected to take up that job with the Rangers.

It’s unclear how this will impact Donnie Ecker, as he has been the bench coach in Texas and there’s been nothing to indicate he’s leaving the club.  Will Venable was just hired to manage the White Sox after previously being associate manager of the Rangers, so perhaps Urueta will take over some of Venable’s duties with Ecker’s title changing.

Schumaker was hired to manage the Marlins ahead of the 2023 season. His first campaign at the helm was a successful one, as the Fish defied the odds to go 84-78 and squeak into the postseason, their first appearance in the playoffs in a full season in 20 years. Schumaker earned National League Manager of the Year honors on the heels of that.

Despite the cinderella season, the Marlins decided to shake up their front office afterwards, parting ways with general manager Kim Ng and hiring Peter Bendix as president of baseball operations. Schumaker was reportedly displeased with the shift in direction, which led the Marlins to void their 2025 club option with him.

That reporting came out in April and it was expected all throughout the 2024 campaign that he would leave Miami, which is what eventually came to pass. He was speculated as a managerial fit for other clubs and did eventually get consideration for openings once the offseason rolled around. Two clubs other than the Marlins had dugout vacancies this winter, the Reds and the White Sox. Schumaker was connected to both gigs but the Reds went with Terry Francona and the Sox with Venable.

Perhaps Schumaker will return to being a skipper someday, but he will join the Rangers organization for now. It’s unclear if this is part of some long-term pivot away from the dugout to the front office or perhaps just a placeholder job. If Schumaker intends to manage again in the future, this job is perhaps a more attractive alternative than just sitting on his hands for a year. He can share some of his expertise with the Rangers while absorbing some of theirs and perhaps be ready to pursue managerial jobs next winter.

It’s also possible that his next managerial opening could be in Arlington. Many people considered Venable to be a sort of manager-in-waiting since current skipper Bruce Bochy is turning 70 years old in April. Venable has now moved on but the club will naturally want to be prepared for the possibility of Bochy deciding to retire. If that comes to pass in the next year or two, perhaps Schumaker can simply slide into that role, already being familiar with some of the inner workings of the organization.

As for Urueta, he spent the past two years working under Schumaker in Miami. It was reported last month that the Marlins would not be retaining any of their coaching staff, presumably letting Schumaker’s eventual replacement have some say over how their next staff would be composed. Urueta got some consideration for the managerial gig in Miami, which is still open, but it now seems he will be heading to Texas with Schumaker.

As mentioned, the Rangers have had both Ecker and Venable on the coaching staff in recent years. Ecker was hired as bench coach and offensive coordinator going into 2022 and Venable was hired as associate manager going into 2023. With Venable leaving and Urueta coming in as bench coach, it’s unclear how this will impact Ecker. Perhaps Ecker could shift into Venable’s role, though that’s mere speculation at this point. More details will surely emerge in the days to come.

11:05am: Former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, who won National League Manager of the Year honors with Miami in 2023, is no longer being considered by the White Sox in their ongoing managerial search, per Jim Margalus and James Fegan of Sox Machine.

It’s not clear whether Schumaker removed his own name from consideration or whether the Sox moved on, either due to fit or asking price. Regardless, the report largely eliminates the possibility of Schumaker leading a new dugout in 2025. His former Marlins club and the Reds (who hired Terry Francona earlier this month) marked the only other managerial vacancies of the offseason (barring an unexpected late decision from another club or a surprise shakeup in the Bronx or L.A. following the World Series).

Even without an immediate managerial opening that makes sense for Schumaker, he’ll have no trouble finding work if he’s open to other roles. He served as a bench coach in St. Louis prior to being hired in Miami, and he’s also held the titles of associate manager and first base coach with the Padres. Schumaker would surely have his pick of coaching roles as teams round out their staffs ahead of the 2025 season, and given his baseball acumen and the manner in which he’s regarded as a coveted managerial prospect, it stands to reason that there are clubs that would welcome the opportunity to add Schumaker in a player development or baseball operations capacity while he bides his time and waits for an appealing managerial opportunity to surface.

Schumaker’s subtraction from the Sox’ list of candidates leaves Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz, Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann, Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso, Rangers associate manager Will Venable, former Angels manager Phil Nevin and current interim manager Grady Sizemore as the current list of known candidates still in the running for the position. Rangers bench coach Donnie Ecker was removed from consideration last week, while Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough and Padres special assistant A.J. Ellis were taken off the list over the weekend. Tigers bench coach George Lombard is also out of the running as of last night.

OCTOBER 16: While not the biggest piece of White Sox-related news today, the club’s more immediate piece of short-term business is finding a new manager.  James Fegan and Josh Nelson of Sox Machine report that Tigers bench coach George Lombard and Padres special assistant A.J. Ellis are two of the candidates being considered in a still-evolving search.

This isn’t the first time that the 49-year-old Lombard has been linked to a managerial opening, as he previously interviewed with the Pirates in 2019 (before Derek Shelton was hired) and for the Tigers in 2020.  Though Detroit ended up going with A.J. Hinch as its new skipper, the Tigers were impressed enough by Lombard to bring him aboard as the bench coach soon after Hinch was hired, and Lombard has subsequently spent the last four seasons in the role.

Lombard’s playing career saw him appear in parts of six seasons from 1998-2006, and he hung up his cleats following a 2009 season spent in the minors and in independent ball.  He then worked in the Red Sox farm system for the next six seasons as a coach, roving coordinator, and manager — a two-season stint with the Red Sox rookie league affiliate in 2011-12 represents Lombard’s only experience as a manager.  After a few months working with the Braves as a minor league coordinator in 2015, Lombard quickly moved onto a new job as the Dodgers’ first base coach, and spent the 2016-20 seasons as part of the L.A. coaching staff.

In a coincidental overlap, Ellis was still playing for the Dodgers in 2016 during Lombard’s first season.  Ellis spent nine of his 11 MLB seasons with the Dodgers, and then after retiring following the 2018 season, stayed in the NL West by taking on an assistant role within the Padres’ baseball operations department.  The special assistant title is a nebulous one that tends to vary greatly in responsibilities based on the individual’s specialties and the club’s needs, but Fegan writes that Ellis has done “plenty of roving player development work” over his six years in San Diego.

Moving into a regular job in the dugout would therefore represent an entirely new frontier for the 43-year-old Ellis, who has no formal managerial or coaching experience.  Of course, Ellis’ long career as a catcher shouldn’t be discounted, given the long line of ex-catchers moving into managerial roles.  As Fegan notes, Ellis had a reputation as a leader on the field during his playing days, and the White Sox could be interested in seeing if Ellis can make as a smooth a transition from catching to managing as Stephen Vogt did for the division rival Guardians.

Neither Lombard or Ellis have ever crossed paths with Chicago GM Chris Getz as a teammate or co-worker, nor were Lombard or Ellis ever former members of the White Sox organization.  This fits with Getz’s prior statement that the White Sox were looking to bring in a new voice as the club’s next manager, though interim manager Grady Sizemore would receive some consideration.

Beyond these names, former Angels manager Phil Nevin, Rangers associate manager Will Venable, and Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso are known to be on Chicago’s list of candidates.  While the Sox still want to talk to some coaches on teams currently playing in the postseason, some preliminary culling has already started to take place, as Fegan writes that the White Sox have already eliminated some candidates from consideration.  A source tells Fegan that former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker is “still alive” in the search, which is no surprise given that Schumaker has long been viewed as a preferred choice for the job.

SEPT. 28: 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.

As per Wittenmyer, the names already linked to the early stages of the search include now former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, former Cubs manager David Ross, and current Reds interim manager and longtime bench coach Freddie Benavides.  It would appear as though the Reds are looking primarily at candidates from outside the organization, as Wittenmyer writes that “Benavides is considered the lone in-house candidate.”  Neither Schumaker or Ross are exactly strangers to Cincinnati either, as both played for the Reds during their on-field careers.

Within minutes of the announcement of Bell’s firing, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that Schumaker was “on the Reds’ radar” as the potential next skipper.  Though Schumaker is technically still under contract with Miami, it has been widely known that the manager and the team were parting ways after this season, so presumably the Marlins gave permission for whatever contact has taken place between the Reds and Schumaker’s camp.

In a sign of just how quickly the ground can shift underneath a manager’s feet, at this time one year ago both Schumaker and Ross seemed to have plenty of job security with their teams.  The Marlins made a surprise run at an NL wild card berth during Schumaker’s first season as manager, and Ross’ Cubs emerged from a two-year rebuild to finish with an 83-79 record.

The Cubs’ progress under Ross wasn’t enough for upper management, however, and Craig Counsell’s presence on the market led the team to stun the baseball world by swooping in to hire Counsell for a five-year, $40MM contract.  Ross found himself suddenly looking for work, and while he was linked to the Padres’ managerial vacancy and the Yankees’ bench coach job, “Uncle Rossy” instead spent the 2024 season on the sidelines.  In regards to the New York job, Ross was reportedly looking to get back into managing rather than coaching if he was to quickly pivot to another role after his unexpectedly late entry onto the open market.

Ross played with seven different teams at the MLB level during his 15-year playing career, including a stint with the Reds from 2006-08.  After capturing a World Series ring as member of the curse-breaking 2016 Cubs, Ross retired from playing and transitioned into a special assistant’s position within the front office.  Ross was then hired as manager following the 2019 season, and delivered a 262-284 record over four seasons in Chicago’s dugout.  The Cubs reached the playoffs in 2020 but Theo Epstein’s departure as president of baseball operations then led to a two-year step backwards for the organization, before the 2023 team posted a winning record.

Schumaker has already faced a lot of tumult over his two seasons as a big league manager.  Hired for Miami’s top job after a five-year stretch on the Padres’ and Cardinals coaching staff, Schumaker’s work in leading the Marlins to the playoffs led him to the 2023 NL Manager of the Year award.  However, on the heels of that successful debut year, owner Bruce Sherman wanted the Marlins to build a better minor league foundation, and looked to install a new president of baseball operations to oversee general manager Kim Ng.  Rather than accept a demotion, Ng declined her end of a mutual option for the 2024 season, and Miami then went into rebuild mode under new PBO Peter Bendix.

This left Schumaker in something of a limbo state, and when the Marlins voided their 2025 club option on his contract back in April, it was pretty apparent that 2024 was going to be Schumaker’s last year in South Beach.  Given how little he had to work with, Schumaker hasn’t been assigned any blame for the Marlins’ woeful 60-100 record this year, and he’ll head into the open market as perhaps the top managerial candidate available.  The White Sox are also known to have interest in Schumaker’s services, but as Wittenmyer observes, managing a Reds team with a lot of young breakout talent might well have more appeal to Schumaker than overseeing what is likely to be a pretty lengthy rebuild on the South Side of Chicago.

Sox general manager Chris Getz met with the team’s beat before Monday’s game. The GM said he’d “have been a little surprised” if he were informed coming into the season that the Sox could — and, at this point, seem quite likely to — set the loss record (link via Jesse Rogers of ESPN). However, Getz implied that he did anticipate one of the worst seasons in franchise history.

“Now if you would have told me prior to the year that we would have ended up with over 100 losses, 105, 110, I wouldn’t have been as surprised,” he told reporters. “But this is the cards that we’ve been dealt at this point. You try to make the best of it, and I think it’s an opportunity to embrace the situation that we’re in.” Before this year, the Sox’s franchise high was the 106 losses they posted in 1970.

That situation is of the Sox’s own making, of course. Getz had been assistant general manager under Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn until that duo was fired shortly after the 2023 trade deadline. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf tabbed Getz to take over baseball operations not long thereafter. The White Sox were already fully amidst a teardown by the time Getz took the reins.

Bright spots on a team that’ll probably lose 120 games are obviously few and far between. Getz unsurprisingly pointed to Garrett Crochet’s breakout as a starting pitcher when asked about his favorite development of the season. Chicago made a risky decision to give the hard-throwing southpaw a rotation job despite his limited workload coming into the year. Yet that turned out to be an excellent call, as Crochet has turned in a 3.83 ERA while striking out nearly 35% of opponents through 29 starts. The Sox have eased up on his workload in the second half, but Crochet should top 140 innings after entering the year with all of 85 1/3 professional frames.

Fantastic as Crochet has pitched, the Sox weren’t able to find an offer to their liking at the deadline. Their trade talks were complicated by the lefty’s camp angling for an extension as a condition of continuing to pitch into October with a new team. Getz and his staff will no doubt field a ton of interest in the 25-year-old during the upcoming winter.

Crochet will probably be the offseason’s top trade candidate. Getz acknowledged they’ll explore the market on the former first-round pick, who is eligible for arbitration for two seasons after this one. “The reality of baseball and where we’re at as an organization, you need to look at the types of return you could potentially get in trades,” Getz said (link via Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). “We need to weigh where we’re going to be in a year or two years, but we also know how talented he is, and he can certainly lead a rotation with the White Sox or anyone else. So we’re going to take advantage of what he’s capable of doing as a starter. But also it’s wise to see what the market holds for Garrett Crochet to see if we can improve the White Sox for the future.”

Getz added that the Sox are not “actively shopping” Crochet, though there’s probably not much distinction in practice. Virtually every contender figures to gauge the Sox’s asking price. Chicago is almost certainly not going to be competitive in either of the next two seasons. There’s no indication that an extension is particularly likely. That would require ownership to sign off on a larger deal than the franchise-record $75MM Andrew Benintendi contract.

The Sox could choose to hold Crochet until the 2025 deadline. If he’s healthy and pitching at a top-of-the-rotation level, he could be the best starter available next summer. Holding him incurs the risk of an early-season injury or, less likely, a sharp drop in performance. An offseason trade seems probable now that Crochet has addressed a lot of the questions about his ability to hold up as a starter. An acquiring team could realistically expect him to build to 160-170 innings in his second full season from the rotation.

[Related: What Might It Cost To Extend Garrett Crochet?]

While a Crochet trade would probably be the Sox’s biggest move of the offseason, it won’t be their first major decision. Getz is leading a managerial search for the first time after the team fired Pedro Grifol a month ago. The Sox announced at the time that they expected their next hire would come from outside the organization. That remains the case, as Getz made clear they’re searching among “candidates that are in uniform with other organizations right now” (relayed by Jay Cohen of the Associated Press). The Sox have gone 5-23 since hiring Grady Sizemore on an interim basis.

In a separate piece at the Sun-Times, Van Shouwen suggests the White Sox could make a run at Skip Schumaker. The 2023 NL Manager of the Year will be out of contract at the end of the season. It is widely expected that he and the Marlins will part ways. Miami agreed to void a ’25 club option on Schumaker’s contract after the manager expressed his frustration with the decision to fire former GM Kim Ng. The Marlins almost immediately kicked off a multi-year rebuild under new baseball operations president Peter Bendix.

Whether Schumaker would have any interest in jumping to a Chicago team that is in an even worse short-term position isn’t clear. Perhaps that’ll depend on which other managerial positions open over the next couple months. Getz declined to narrow a timeline for the Sox hiring, though he said they have not begun to reach out to other teams about getting permission to interview personnel who are currently under contract.

The Herald trio writes that owner Bruce Sherman agreed to remove the club option on the contract “as a show of good faith” after Schumaker voiced his concerns. In essence, voiding the club option gives Schumaker control over his own future if he and Bendix clash over the course of the season. Per the Herald report, there have been no issues between Bendix and Schumaker even in spite of the team’s terrible (1-10) start to the season, but the in-house expectation is that Schumaker will explore other options following the season.

April 7: Marlins manager Skip Schumaker is set to become a free agent following the 2024 season, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Schumaker was hired by the club in October 2022 to serve under then-GM Kim Ng and agreed to a two-year deal with a club option for 2025, but Nightengale reports that Miami agreed to void the option this past winter.

Schumaker, 44, is a former big league outfielder and second baseman who played for the Cardinals, Dodgers, and Reds from 2005 to 2015 with a roughly league average .278/.337/.364 slash line in 1,149 career games. Just a few short years after retiring as a player in 2016, Schumaker began his coaching career as the first base coach in San Diego for the 2018 season. He was promoted to associate manager prior to the 2020 season but departed the club prior to the 2022 campaign to rejoin the Cardinals as Oli Marmol’s bench coach.

After a year working under Marmol in St. Louis, Schumaker quickly emerged as a finalist to replace outgoing manager Don Mattingly in Miami, and eventually reached a deal with the Marlins shortly thereafter. His debut season as manager scarcely could’ve gone better, as Schumaker led a surprisingly competitive Marlins club to an 84-win season in 2023, securing the club’s first full-season playoff appearance since 2003. Miami’s surprising performance was enough to earn Schumaker NL Manager of the Year honors over fellow finalists Craig Counsell and Brian Snitker.

Since then, however, there’s been plenty of upheaval in the Marlins organization. Ng parted ways with the organization after ownership refused to offer her an extension and indicated they planned to reduce her role by installing a president of baseball operations above her. Her departure last fall reportedly upset Schumaker. The club subsequently hired former Rays GM Peter Bendix to run the club’s baseball operations department.

The club went on to make minimal additions to its roster this winter, only adding shortstop Tim Anderson on a major league deal. Slugger Jorge Soler departed for San Francisco via free agency, and the Marlins at least entertained the idea of trading Jesus Luzardo and other young starters this winter. While it’s still early in the 2024 season, the returns on the club’s inaction this winter are nothing short of awful; the club has lost each of its first nine games this season while suffering injuries to key pieces such as Eury Perez and Braxton Garrett — both of whom opened the season on the injured list. Perez will miss the entire 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery.

Given the recent changes in club leadership and the team’s struggles, it’s possible Bendix hopes to choose his own manager following the 2024 season, resulting in the team being willing to forfeit their ability to unilaterally retain Schumaker. If Schumaker doesn’t remain in Miami beyond the current season, Nightengale suggests that he could join Red Sox manager Alex Cora as one of the most attractive managerial candidates available to clubs this winter.

That’s apparent in Schumaker’s case, as the 43-year-old takes home the hardware for his first season on the job. The Marlins hired him off the Cardinals’ coaching staff last offseason. Miami was coming off a 69-93 showing but improved by 15 games in Schumaker’s first year. The Fish went 84-78 and secured the second Wild Card spot in the National League. It marked their first playoff appearance in a 162-game season since 2003.

Few anticipated Miami making that kind of run. They were widely perceived as the fourth-best team in the NL East entering the season. Their success came despite a -57 run differential, as Miami went a staggering 33-14 in one-run contests. How much of that is attributable to good sequencing is up for debate, although it stands to reason voters are giving Schumaker credit for his successful handling of the bullpen in so many late-game situations. The Fish were bounced in the Wild Card round by the Phillies.

While the Marlins were a surprise playoff team, the Orioles claiming the #1 seed in the Junior Circuit might have been even less expected. Baltimore had clearly positioned itself as a team on the rise following an 83-79 showing in 2022. Yet few projected them as favorites in what looked like a stacked AL East going into the year.

Hyde’s club nevertheless improved by 18 games, jumping to a 101-51 season. They ran down and held off the Rays to claim the division title. Baltimore stuck by Gunnar Henderson through some early-season struggles and saw the talented infielder blossom into a star. He was a unanimous choice for Rookie of the Year, while Adley Rutschman reinforced his place as an elite catcher in his second big league campaign. Kyle Bradish stepped forward as an unexpected staff ace, while top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez had a promising second half.

The season didn’t end as the organization hoped. The O’s were swept in the Division Series by the eventual champion Rangers. (That’s not relevant for awards purposes, as the voting is conducted before the postseason.) Hyde’s club nevertheless made a clear statement they’re positioned as consistent contenders entering what’ll be his sixth year at the helm.

Schumaker edged past Craig Counsell (then of the Brewers) and Atlanta’s Brian Snitker in the NL voting. The finalists were joined by Torey Lovullo, Dave Roberts and David Bell in receiving at least one first-place vote. Hyde’s victory was moire resounding, as he picked up 27 of 30 first-place nods. The Rangers’ Bruce Bochy, who finished in second, got the other three selections. Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash finished in third place.

Full voting results: National League, American League

Mendoza’s candidacy comes as something of a surprise; he is seen as a possible contender for the Guardians managerial opening, but he had not previously been linked to the Giants.

After four years as a player in the Yankees farm system, Mendoza moved into a minor league coaching role in 2009. Over the next nine seasons, he took on various coaching roles at various levels before he was promoted to the big league staff ahead of the 2018 campaign. He spent two years as the infield coach and has been Aaron Boone’s bench coach since 2020.

More coaching and managerial news from around the Senior Circuit…

• Jon Heyman of the New York Post identifies Marlins manager Skip Schumaker as a potential target for the Padres – the team loved him during his tenure as a coach in San Diego – although it doesn’t seem likely that the Marlins will give him permission to interview with another club. The 2024 season will be the last guaranteed year on the skipper’s contract, but Miami has a club option for the 2025 campaign. Still, Heyman suggests the rookie manager might already be looking to move on; he is reportedly upset with the way the team pushed former GM Kim Ng out of her role. Ng hired Schumaker last October, and presumably, he planned on working with her for more than a single season.
• Heyman also brings up Pirates bench coach Don Kelly, dubbing the former utility player a “future manager” – although he doesn’t link him to any specific teams. In fact, Kelly isn’t planning to throw his hat in the ring for any of the managerial openings around the league. Following the recent passing of his father-in-law Tom Walker, he would prefer to remain close to family in Pittsburgh, where he has spent the past four seasons working under manager Derek Shelton.

Jay retired in 2021 after a 12-year career in the big leagues. He appeared for seven different teams, but is known mostly for his time with the Cardinals. There, he hit .287/.354/.387 across six seasons and 757 games in the Cardinals outfield, winning the World Series in 2011. After St Louis traded him to San Diego ahead of the 2016 season, Jay would spend a lot of time shifting around the majors, never appearing for the same team across multiple seasons. Between 2015 and his retirement in 2021, Jay appeared for the Padres, Cubs, Royals, Diamondbacks, White Sox, Diamondbacks again, before wrapping up his career with a short stint at the Angels.

It’s not a great surprise that a gig with the Marlins under Schumacher is his first. Jay is a native of Miami, and he and Schumaker spent a number of years together on the Cardinals, including on that World Series winning side of 2011. Jay joins pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. and bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda as those on board for 2023, but Schumaker still has a bit of work to do to fill out his coaching staff.

“After an extensive process, it is with great pride and excitement that we announced Skip Schumaker as manager of the Miami Marlins,” chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman said in the statement announcing the news. Schumaker made a statement of his own. “I’m very excited and grateful that Bruce, (general manager Kim Ng), and the Marlins organization have given me an opportunity to manage a very talented team. Delivering a winning, sustainable culture with the expectation of getting into the postseason is the next step for this organization and South Florida – and I can’t wait to get started.”

As another disappointing season was winding down in Miami, it was reported that Mattingly and the club would go their separate ways. Over the past few weeks, recent reporting indicated that the final four candidates were Schumaker, Rays’ bench coach Matt Quatraro, Astros’ bench coach Joe Espada and Yankees’ third base coach Luis Rojas.

Schumaker, 43 in February, played in the big leagues from 2005 to 2015, spending time with the Cardinals, Dodgers and Reds. He signed a minor league deal with the Padres for 2016 but announced his retirement in March. It didn’t take long for him to get involved in post-playing roles, as he was hired by the Padres to be their first base coach for 2018. Prior to the 2020 season, the Friars gave him the title of “associate manager.”

One year ago, the Cardinals surprisingly parted ways with manager Mike Shildt despite a solid run in the dugout. Once they promoted Oli Marmol to take over, they suddenly had a vacancy at the bench coach position and hired Schumaker to take that over. The Marmol-Schumaker pairing seemed to work well, as the Cards went 93-69 in 2022 and recaptured the Central division. However, the club will now be looking for a new bench coach for a second year in a row.

For the Marlins, they are looking to take a turn after years of frustration. Outside of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, they haven’t made the playoffs since way back in 2003. There have been many frustrating stops and starts for the fans in that time, with 2022 once seeming like it could have been the year that the Marlins made a serious jump into contention. They had a strong pitching staff and supplemented their position player mix by bringing in outside additions like Jorge Soler, Avisaíl García, Jacob Stallings and Joey Wendle. Unfortunately, all four of those players dealt with injury or underperformance or both. When combined with injuries and disappointing results elsewhere on the roster, Miami fell well out of contention again and ended up with a 69-93 record.

Ng and the rest of the front office will surely be hoping that Schumaker will be instrumental in turning things around. The impacts of coaches can be difficult to quantify, but there’s no doubting Schumaker has made a quick rise through the ranks. It was just a few years ago that he was still playing, and he quickly joined the big leagues as a coach without first requiring a stint in the minors. From there, he got a promotion in San Diego and then has been quickly poached by two different organizations, highlighting the respect he has around the game. If that’s not enough, Marlins players are quickly showcasing their approval, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Sandy Alcantara both taking to social media to share their enthusiasm (Twitter links).

Of course, a manager alone can not turn a poor team into a champion. There is still a lot of work for the Marlins to do this winter in upgrading their roster. But for now, they can cross one item off their to-do list, adding a young up-and-coming manager who seems to have tremendous respect throughout the game.

Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald was first to report the Marlins were hiring Schumaker, and to report Schumaker’s contract details.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald reports that former Mets skipper Luis Rojas, who’s currently the Yankees’ third base coach, also secured a second interview, suggesting that he’s the fourth (and apparently last) finalist in the mix for the job.

9:37am: The Marlins are continuing to narrow the field in their search for manager Don Mattingly’s successor and have deemed a handful of names to be finalists in their search. Per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro and Astros bench coach Joe Espada are among a “small field” of finalists in Miami. Jon Heyman of the New York Post adds Cardinals bench coach Skip Schumaker to the list of finalists.

Both Quatraro and Espada were considered finalists in last offseason’s Mets managerial search, before the team ultimately hired a more experienced option in the form of veteran Buck Showalter. The Marlins, it seems, are taking a different approach; the entire group of known candidates to have interviewed in Miami would be first-time managers at the big league level. Quatraro and Espada have both interviewed with at least five teams for managerial vacancies in recent years.

Schumaker, meanwhile, is a fast-rising name in the coaching ranks himself. The former big league utilityman was playing in the Majors as recently as 2015 and landed his first Major League coaching gig when the Padres named him first base coach in the 2017-18 offseason. San Diego eventually elevated him to the unusual title of “associate manager,” before the Cardinals, for whom he played eight Major League seasons, tabbed him as their new bench coach a year ago. Along the way, Schumaker has also interviewed for managerial vacancies with the Mets and Red Sox.

Other names known to have interviewed thus far include Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol and Phillies third base coach Dusty Wathan. Braves bench coach Walt Weiss reportedly declined an opportunity to interview, though the fact that there was even interest suggests that the Marlins aren’t dead-set on hiring a rookie skipper. Weiss spent four seasons as the Rockies’ manager from 2013-16.

The Marlins appear to be looking for a rookie manager with some previous dugout experience to replace the veteran Mattingly, as they’ve reportedly interviewed Astros bench coach Joe Espada, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro, and Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol in addition to Schumaker. Espada and Quatraro have both reportedly received second interviews, and stand out as possible favorites for the job alongside Schumaker. While Espada and Grifol have both reportedly interviewed for other open positions, Schumaker’s interview with Miami is the only such interview that has been reported. The Athletic’s Katie Woo notes that Schumaker has a mutual option with the Cardinals for the 2023 season, and another for 2024.

While Schumaker doesn’t appear to be interviewing for other managerial openings this offseason, that’s not to say this is the first time a club has had interest in him for the manager’s seat. Schumaker has been fielding interviews for a managerial role since 2019, when the Mets interviewed him for their open manager position following that season. Schumaker also interviewed with the Red Sox after the 2020 season and the Cardinals following the 2021 season (before being hired as bench coach) for their managerial vacancies. While those vacancies all ultimately went to other candidates, there’s clear interest around the league in what Schumaker could bring to the table as a manager.

2022 was a tough season in Miami. While the young pitching the Marlins have become known for largely delivered, highlighted by Sandy Alcantara’s Cy Young caliber campaign, nearly the entire starting lineup under performed; only first baseman Garrett Cooper (113 OPS+) and outfielder Bryan De La Cruz (103 OPS+) posted an above average offensive season in 2022 among Marlins qualifiers. A full season from second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. in 2023 would surely help improve Miami’s struggling offense, but with both Jorge Soler and Avisail Garcia having turned in concerning seasons to open their multi-year contracts with the organization, it will take further internal improvement for Miami to compete next season without significant offensive additions.

Nov. 6: Skip Schumaker is returning to the Cardinals. The former infielder will join new manager Oliver Marmol’s staff as the bench coach, per Rob Rains of stlsportspage.com (via Twitter). The agreement will be finalized this weekend, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Schumaker was thought to be a candidate to take over as manager after Mike Shildt was let go, and while that job ultimately went to Marmol, Schumaker returns to the Midwest anyway to serve as Marmol’s right hand. Schumaker was the Padres’ first base coach last season. He now steps into the role that Marmol himself filled for St. Louis last year.

The scrappy infielder/outfielder was a fan favorite of the Cardinals’ rabid fanbase during his playing days. He spent eight seasons in St. Louis, slashing .288/.345/.377 in 2,687 plate appearances.

The latest on a few other coaching situations around the league:

• The Cardinals have been in contact with Padres associate manager Skip Schumaker about potentially joining the  organization in some capacity, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Almost immediately after the Cards dismissed Mike Shildt as manager, speculation arose about Schumaker — a former Cardinals utilityman — as a potential successor. St. Louis opted to promote bench coach Oliver Marmol instead, although it’s still possible Schumaker could assume some other position on the Cardinals staff. The 41-year-old remains employed by San Diego, but Padres’ coaches were given permission to explore opportunities elsewhere after the Friars dismissed manager Jayce Tingler.
• The Guardians are on the hunt for a new hitting coach after parting ways with Ty Van Burkleo a few weeks ago. Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com reports that his replacement is expected to come from outside the organization. Searching for a hitting instructor is unfamiliar territory for the Guardians’ front office and manager Terry Francona. Van Burkleo had served in that role for the entirety of Francona’s tenure as Cleveland’s manager, joining the staff leading into the 2013 season.
• Brewers coaching staff advisor Ed Sedar is retiring, the club announced this morning. Sedar was a longtime member of the staff, working as a base coach for the Brew Crew from 2007-20. He transitioned into an advisory role last winter, with former big league outfielder Quintin Berry stepping into the vacant third base coaching role. Sedar spent the better part of three decades in the Milwaukee organization, first joining the club as a minor league coach in 1992.