The Riverside Press-Enterprise
No Latino GMS in MLB after Tigers' firing of Avila
St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol didn’t realize there were no Latino general managers left in Major League Baseball after the Detroit Tigers fired Al Avila.
Marmol himself is one of only three Latino on-field managers, along with Boston’s Alex Cora and Washington’s Dave Martinez. There were four when the season started, but the Toronto Blue Jays fired Charlie Montoyo last month.
“That’s outrageous,” Marmol said , when going over the short list of Latino managers.
While roughly 29% of the players on big league rosters to start this season were Latino or Hispanic, and the percentage of coaches was just a tick higher, that hasn’t translated to similar numbers in management positions on and off the field for the 30 MLB teams.
Kansas City Royals manager Mike Matheny was aware of Avila’s firing, but was unaware that Avila was baseball’s only Latino GM.
“He had a great run. He’s a good baseball man,” Matheny
said. “Certainly, we have at least one third of our players are Latino. I know how valuable it is to have that connection in our clubhouse and with our staff. You can see the need to have representation in leadership.”
With Avila out after seven years as Detroit’s GM, MLB has even fewer minorities in leading front-office positions.
Chicago White Sox executive vice president Kenny Williams is the only Black leader of baseball operations for any club, Miami Marlins GM Kim Ng is the only woman and Asian-american in that role, and San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, who is of Pakistani descent, is the only Muslim.
The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida in May released its annual study of diversity hiring in MLB. The report said of 975 big league players on April 1, that 278 of them (28.5%) were Hispanic or Latino. That has been at least 25% each year since 1998. The four Latino managers at the beginning of the season matched the most — like the three previous seasons, as well as 2004 and 2011.
Arte Moreno, who has owned the Angels since 2003, is the only Hispanic or Latino majority team owner.
Avila was fired Wednesday by the Tigers, who were in a rebuilding process when he got the job and are still struggling. They haven’t been to the playoffs since Avila was promoted to GM on Aug. 4, 2015, after serving as Dave Dombrowski’s assistant.
The 36-year-old Marmol is the youngest manager in the majors. The New Jersey native, who traces his lineage to the Dominican Republic, also is only the franchise’s second minority manager.
Marmol has been with the Cardinals organization since being picked in the sixth round of the 2007 amateur draft. He never played above Class A but became a coach and manager in the minors, then joined the big league staff in 2017.
“An important word for me is ‘access.’ For me, I give a lot of credit for being in this seat because of the access I was given,” Marmol said. “If you look at some of the places I grew up, you’re not exposed to the things you need to be exposed to allow you to have those seats.
“So a lot of it is early-on access to being equipped with a way of thinking, communicating, managing, handling personalities — all of the things that other people, honestly, have access to that a lot of Latin communities don’t,” he said. “I think that’s where it starts.”
Kiermaier ponders future after surgery
Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier expects to be ready for opening day next year following season-ending left hip surgery, but what team that will be with is yet to be determined.
The 32-year-old Kiermaier is in the final season of a $53.5 million, six-year contract agreed to in March 2017. The Rays have a team option for 2023, which they will likely decline.
While Kiermaier is focused on his rehab program, he also understands that this time with Tampa
Bay that dates to his major league debut in 2013 could be over. He is open to staying with the Rays.
“I’m driven, I’m motivated, this is like, for me, chasing something again,” Kiermaier said. “I’m going to do everything in my power to try to look like the player I was a couple years ago, and hopefully a team, several teams will be wanting me. That’s what I plan, and I’m very excited.”
The three-time AL Gold Glove winner was using crutches when he appeared in the Rays clubhouse for the first time since surgery before Saturday’s game with the Baltimore Orioles.
Kiermaier hit .228 with seven homers and 22 RBIS in 63 games this season.
He said he was in “really rough shape” over the last year and a half due to issues with the labrum. He last played on July 9.
“My labrum was in terrible shape,” he said. “Looked awful. (The doctor) showed me pictures before and after, and it was incredible I played as long as what I did.”
Kiermaier feels way better than expected a week and a half after surgery and called the procedure “a complete win.”
The Associated Press