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It sounds like the Marlins are as dysfunctional as ever
The frustrations continue to mount with the Miami Marlins. Within the past two weeks, the club has undergone a number of changes, starting with the firing of manager Mike Redmond just 38 games into the season.
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By now, we all know the rest of the story. General manager Dan Jennings was named the team's manager, the players skipped a charity event, coaches were reassigned and the club continued to lose games. The team, which is 18-30, has gone 2-8 since Jennings took over. All of that happened in the past two weeks!
Throughout that time, there have been some rumblings that the players may not be on board with the changes. That's exactly the case, according to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald.
Spencer couldn't get any players or agents to go on the record to voice their displeasure about the situation, but it sounds pretty serious.
But some players and agents, who would only speak off the record, said there’s more to it than that. Not only were they caught by surprise when manager Mike Redmond was fired only 38 games into the season, but they were taken aback by the decision to replace him with a front-office executive — Dan Jennings — with no managing or coaching experience.
Jennings had not spent any time in a major-league dugout in any capacity — not even as a batboy — and it has rankled players.
How many?
“All 25 of them,” said the agent of one player.
There's a lot to digest here. Given that the source wouldn't speak on the record, the "all 25 of them" quote should probably be taken with a grain of salt.
At the same time, it's reasonable to expect the players to be disappointed. We typically see this any time a coach gets fired. Those players have loyalty to their manager, even if the team is performing badly. There's also a sense that the manager got fired because the players weren't performing on the field, so there's a strange level of guilt involved when a manager goes.
The entire Jennings situation complicates matters here. While it may not matter to the casual fan whether Jennings has major-league experience, that attribute is still important to the players. It matters to them that their manager has been through similar situations in the past. He has gone through a slump at the plate, or dealt with the everyday issues involved with being on the road. Jennings doesn't have any of that, making it tough for him to relate to his team.
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The sad thing here is that it's still May. The club has already resorted to desperate moves, and those don't appear to be working. Given what we've heard recently, combined with Spencer's article, the clubhouse is already lost.
We haven't even reached the midpoint of the season and the Marlins are an absolute mess. It's unclear how the situation can get any worse right now, but it's also incredibly tough to see this improving moving forward.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
