Why the Marlins decided not to exercise Skip Schumaker’s 2025 contract option. Players also discuss the 1–10 start.
Following a report on Sunday by Bob Nightingale of USA Today claiming that the Marlins had decided to void the manager’s contract’s 2025 team option “during contract talks this past winter,” the sources provided clarification.
According to the sources, Schumaker was not happy about general manager Kim Ng’s exit from the team. Ng left in October of last year after owner Bruce Sherman told her that she would be reporting to a new president of baseball operations. Ng was not happy about losing her authority.
On Thursday, February 15, 2024, at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter, Florida, during the Miami Marlins pitchers and catchers’ spring training exercise, manager Skip Schumaker meets the players on the field. Good friends with Ng, Schumaker voiced his concerns to Sherman prior to Sherman appointing Peter Bendix as the team’s new head baseball officer.
Sherman consented to nullifying the manager’s contract’s 2025 team option as a gesture of good faith. This gives Schumaker the option to look for another job over the winter.After the season, Schumaker is anticipated to look into other possibilities.To be clear, Bendix did not cause Schumaker any problems. All he was upset about was Ng leaving and the new order in the corporation.
Baseball fans hold Schumaker in high regard, and he received widespread recognition for leading the Marlins to an 84-78 record and a wild card berth in 2023; Miami was dispatched by Philadelphia in the opening round.
Schumaker may still be given consideration for other managerial positions this winter, even if the Marlins (1–10) end up with one of the poorest records in baseball. According to a source, the Marlins would be interested in keeping Schumaker for the upcoming campaign.
Given the recent changes to the front office hierarchy and the organization’s choice to forgo improving the roster during the offseason, a comeback in 2025 is currently not seen as likely. Schumaker just said, “Bruce has always treated me and my family great,” in response to inquiries about the situation. Bendix also declined to provide an explanation for the modifications made to Schumaker’s contract.
Marlins players discuss their 1-10 start. The Marlins’ 7-0 loss to the New York Yankees to start a three-game road series was the team’s latest low point in the early going of the season. It was the Marlins’ first shutout of the year. They were the first team to lose at least ten of their opening 11 games since the Baltimore Orioles in 2010.
In the history of the franchise, only one previous Marlins team had begun 1–10: the 54–108 squad from 1998.The Marlins players have attempted to maintain a positive attitude in spite of their inability to win games. Instead of focusing on how far behind they are thus early in the season, they are attempting to look ahead at the 151 games that are still left on the schedule.
Outfielder Bryan De La Cruz advised, “You’ve gotta just scratch it and come back again the next day.” “You are not allowed to keep looking at the record. It will only remain in your mind if you see that 1–10 and return the next day with that record.
However, this start also brings with it a reality: of the thirty Major League Baseball clubs that began a season with a 1–10 record before this one, only two—the 1983 Houston Astros (85-77) and the 1922 Cincinnati Reds (86-68)—finished with a winning record.
Catcher Nick Fortes stated, “We can only control what we can control, which is tomorrow and bringing your best effort every day.” We will arrive, show up, have a great attitude, and give it our all. That is what we are going to do. All we have control over is that.