Schumaker needs proper resources to succeed
In the little off time she has had since the Miami Marlins’ season ended in early October, general manager Kim Ng has taken the occasional glimpse at the MLB playoffs.
Ng was hoping the Marlins would have been part of the 12-team field this season, and Miami kept itself in the conversation through the first half of the season before wilting and ultimately finishing with a 69-93 record.
It has her thinking about the ultimate question that needs to answered sooner than later: How close are the Marlins, truly, to getting to the playoffs?
“I ask that every day,” Ng said Thursday, before adding, “There’s work to do, for sure.”
Some of that work has already begun. The Marlins hired a new manager in
Skip Schumaker, a 42-yearold first-time skipper who has been part of plenty of winning during his career — most notably two World Series as a player with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006 and 2011.
But the real telltale sign of just how invested the Marlins are in winning as they head into Year 6 under the Bruce Sherman ownership group is just how much they actually invest into the club this offseason.
Sherman said Thursday that he “would have loved to spend money at the trade deadline” last season, but the Marlins slipped from being on the periphery of the playoffs around the All-Star Break to a point of nearly no return by the time the Aug. 2 deadline rolled around.
“We’ve been here five years. We haven’t had the success we wanted,” Sherman said. “We understand that 2020 [playoff run during the pandemic-shortened season] was there. It wasn’t fun to see a sweep of the Cubs [in the wild-card round] with no fans there, but the commitment to this organization is very deep. ...We’re going to continue to measure success by winning championships.”
So does that mean Sherman will be willing open the checkbook this offseason to fortify the Marlins’ biggest needs, namely the offense and the bullpen?
Sherman didn’t commit to a number, but he did point to the four deals the Marlins made last season, extending shortstop Miguel Rojas (two years, $10 million) and Sandy Alcantara (five years, $56 million with a $21 million club option) as well as the signing of outfielders Avisail Garcia (four years, $53 million plus a club option for 2026) and Jorge Soler ($12 million in 2022 plus a $15 million player option in 2023 and $9 million player option in 2024).
Rojas and Alcantara did their jobs last season. Rojas was a Gold Glove Award finalist at shortstop despite playing the second half of the season with an injured wrist. Alcantara is the frontrunner to win the National League Cy Young Award.
Soler and Garcia? Not so much. The two middle-ofthe-lineup bats combined to hit just 21 home runs and log 69 RBI. Neither played more than 100 games.
“Disappointment,” Sherman said of the performance of Soler and Garcia, “but you want to support your players.”
Sherman and Ng also reiterated that, as a historically low payroll team, the Marlins will need to continue to mine success from within. That means a focus on player development and quality finds in both the draft and the international free agent market.
Miami last week unveiled its new 35-acre academy and development complex in the Dominican Republic, which Sherman called “state of the art” and noted that improvements are on the way for the team’s spring training complex in Jupiter.
The Marlins also hired Oz Ocampo, a front-office executive who has had most of his success with the Houston Astros (a club with a rich history during the past decade of successful player development), as an assistant general manager.
“If you look at the success of the smaller- and medium-sized clubs, it’s come through development,” Sherman said.
“That has to be an increased emphasis. We made a financial commitment in the front office for that. We made a financial commitment in the Dominican Republic for that. And I think ownership has continued to invest those dollars.”