The Miami Marlins have finally found their new manager.
Yesterday, it was announced that the team had hired St. Louis Cardinals bench coach Skip Schumaker to be their new manager, replacing the departing Don Mattingly.
Schumaker spent eight seasons with St. Louis as a player before playing his final three seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds.
The Cardinals hired Schumaker as their bench coach last year after several years with the San Diego Padres in the same role.
Cardinals insider Katie Woo offered some perspective on the situation, saying that it was not a matter of if, but rather when with Schumaker getting a chance to manage in the big leagues.
It wasn’t a matter of if Skip Schumaker would be a major-league manager, it was a matter of when.
Cardinals will now look to fill their bench coach role for the second consecutive offseason. https://t.co/KLzU0E4Cyx
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) October 25, 2022
Marlins Hire Schumaker, Cards Look For Replacement
Schumaker wasn’t a household name during his playing days, but as a bench coach, he has been lauded for his ability to perfect analytics and apply them to today’s style of play.
For a young team like the Marlins, this could be the exact right approach as they try and assess the talent they have in-house and how to build around it.
While the Marlins have struggled in recent years, Schumaker does at least have a couple of solid starting pitchers in his rotation, those being former Cardinal Sandy Alcantara and Pablo Lopez.
Meanwhile for the Cardinals, they’ll look to find another candidate to fill the bench coach role.
Perhaps they could stay in-house and promote somebody like first base coach and lifetime Cardinal Stubby Clapp.
It’s also possible that they could promote Triple-A manager Ben Johnson to the big-league staff.
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