Marlins part ways with Hill

Longtime exec’s tenure ends after 19 seasons

Marlins executive Michael

Hill’s 19-season tenure with the franchise has ended.

Hill was president of baseball operations for the last six years and provided continuity after a 2017 change in ownership, but his contract expired and he will not be back next season, CEO Derek Jeter said Sunday.

“I had to approach this as a new negotiation,” Jeter said. “We had conversations over the last week or so, and I just felt it would be best for the organization at this particular time to move on without Mike.”

The Marlins will cast a wide search for a replacement, but potential candidates are unlikely to include vice president of player development and scouting Gary Denbo, who has been instrumental in the franchise turnaround and is expected to remain in his current role.

“We have a lot of smart baseball minds in our organization, and there are smart baseball minds around the game,” Jeter said. “We’re going to sit down and see what type of person we need in this role.”

Hill joined the Marlins’ front office in 2002, and the next year they won the World Series. But this year’s 31-29 finish was their first above .500 since 2009, and they made the playoffs for the first time in 17 years.

Hill helped steer the Marlins through a coronavirus outbreak that nearly derailed their season. The Marlins beat the Cubs in the wild-card round of the playoffs before being eliminated by the Braves and exceeded all outside expectations with a young, patchwork roster one year after losing 105 games.

“It was a great step for us as an organization to see some of the progress we have made over the last three years,” Jeter said.

Hill was general manager for six seasons before becoming president of baseball operations, and he retained that title even as Jeter overhauled the organizational structure.

“The roles and the responsibilities have changed since we’ve gotten here,” Jeter said. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job of building each department of baseball operations.”

Hill had a hand in the record 13-year, $325 million contract Giancarlo Stanton signed with the Marlins in 2014. He later was involved in trading Stanton and All-Stars Christian Y eli ch, Mar cell Ozuna, Dee Gordon and J.T. Realmuto as the Marlins rebuilt from the farm system up under Jeter.

Tigers’ search in focus: Pedro Grifol has emerged as one of the top candidates to become the next manager of the Tigers.

Grifol, the Royals bench coach, already has interviewed with the Tigers, and MLB.com reported Sunday that the 50-year-old made a strong impression on team officials.

The Tigers will wait until after the World Series to make any decisions, but Grifol has advanced into the top tier of candidates for a number of reasons.

Tigers GM Al Avila has known Grifol for more than 30 years.

Avila also considered Grifol for the Tigers’ manager job in the fall of 2017, before hiring Ron Garden hire. The Tigers have watched Grifol assume greater responsibilities with a division rival over the last several years, working as Royals manager Mike Matheny’s bench coach this season after previous serving as a quality control and catching and hitting coach.

Grifol, who’s Cuban-American and bilingual, is regarded as an exceptional communicator, dating back to his time as a minor league manager with the Mariners. He also has the front office experience many teams want in managerial candidates, having worked as the Mariners director of minor league operations from 2008-11.

Grifol was a finalist for the Giants’ manager job last off season, before Giants GM Farhan Zaidi hired Gabe Kapler, with whom Zaidi had worked in the Dodgers’ front office.

Zaidi, known for his datadriven approach, toldWorthy that Grifol was “really proficient” in his statistical understanding of players.