The Miami Marlins began waving the white flag sooner than perhaps any major league team. On May 4, they traded All-Star infielder Luis Arraez to the San Diego Padres for a package of three prospects and pitcher Woo-Suk Go, who was subsequently designated for assignment.
The Marlins lost to the Oakland A’s 20-4 that day. They were 9-26 at the time.
“The team’s record is what it is right now,” Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said on a conference call at the time. “We’re very disappointed. … It’s something that we can’t change right now and when we got this offer on Luis for a tremendous amount of young talent that we really think is going to be very helpful for us long-term, it was just something we couldn’t walk past.”
The rebuild was on.
Monday came Phase II.
The Marlins have informed assistant general managers Dan Greenlee and Oz Ocampo that their contracts will not be renewed for 2025, as first reported by the Miami Herald. According to Craig Mish, longtime assistant general manager Brian Chattin is expected to remain with the team.
Greenlee and Ocampo were hired under an executive regime led by Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, the Marlins’ chief executive officer and part owner from Sept. 2017 to Feb. 2022.
The changes come under the oversight of Bendix, who was hired to replace Jeter’s hand-picked general manager, Kim Ng.
Ng, the first woman to hold her position in Major League Baseball, declined her end of a mutual option with the Marlins in Oct. 2023. According to Mish, Greenlee and Ocampo held pivotal roles in the team’s executive offices:
“Multiple sources with knowledge of the Marlins internal structure credit Greenlee with many of the Marlins key player acquisitions prior to Peter Bendix’s hiring last November — including having a primary role in acquiring pitcher Jesus Luzardo at the 2021 MLB trade deadline in exchange for impeding free agent Starling Marte.
“Ocampo was hired by former Marlins General Manager Kim Ng, and sources say he was her go-to voice for a short time while both were in the front office.”
It’s not unusual for a new general manager to want to bring in his own people, particularly if he feels that their vision for the future of the franchise might conflict with his own.
In the Marlins’ case, it’s been difficult to see the vision for years. The Marlins qualified for a Wild Card berth last year despite their 84-78 record, after a regular season in which they were handily outscored by opponents (723-666). They lost their best-of-three division series to the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-0.
Other than a 31-29 record in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, 2023 marked the first time the Marlins posted a winning record since 2009. Righting the ship now falls to Bendix and his soon-to-be hand-picked lieutenants.
A more intriguing question, perhaps, is whether manager Skip Schumaker will be around to see the changes.
Schumaker reportedly had his mutual option for the 2025 season voided because he was frustrated by the departure of Ng. While it’s possible Schumaker and Bendix could negotiate a new deal, it’s more likely that the GM will want to hand-pick his own manager, in light of his new decisions about two of his top front-office lieutenants. Schumaker won the 2023 National League Manager of the Year award.
For a franchise that’s had few constants, more changes appear to be in store.
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