Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix described his team’s season as “disappointing” and “frustrating,” but he remains hopeful for the future despite a history of inconsistency and changes.
In his end-of-season press conference on Tuesday, Bendix talked about the Marlins’ 2024 season, where they lost 100 games for the second time in six years and did not make the playoffs. He chose not to go into detail about the decision to let go of Skip Schumaker, the 2023 NL Manager of the Year.
“I have a lot of respect for Skip,” Bendix said. “I enjoyed working with him. I’m going to keep the private conversations that we had private. But I truly, I wish him and his family nothing but the best.”
The Marlins and Schumaker agreed that he would not return for the 2025 season. He led a team affected by trades and injuries to a 146-178 record over the last two years.
Bendix did not say if the Marlins tried to keep Schumaker for another season. He mentioned that he will have discussions with the rest of the coaching staff later this week but did not confirm if anyone on the current staff would be considered for the manager position.
Regarding what Bendix will look for in his first managerial hire, he stated, “there’s a lot of different ways, a lot of different styles of being a great manager. And we’re going to run a thorough process, and we’re going to explore a lot of different candidates.”
He added, “No timeline on it because we want to really get the right candidate for us.”
The Marlins will be looking for their 17th manager in the team’s history. Only Don Mattingly (2016-2022) has managed the team for more than four seasons.
This season, the Marlins began another rebuilding phase by trading away three-time batting champion Luis Arraez, star outfielder Jazz Chisholm Jr., and other key players with high salaries in exchange for younger prospects.
