Cote: It’s mountaintop to hinterlands as Miami Marlins intro new manager Clayton McCullough | Opinion

Welcome to Miami, Clayton McCullough. We are about 2,330 miles southeast of Los Angeles, down here in the baseball hinterlands.

You have left the safety of your job as first base coach of the World Series champion Dodgers — left the very mountaintop of your sport — to climb down to manage the Marlins. Some might question your sanity for this move. Not me. I say you deserve credit for bravery and perhaps a medal. I wish you all of the luck you will need.

You come from an L.A. market whose Dodgers led MLB in attendance last year, averaging 48,657 fans per home game. You come to a Miami market whose Marlins struggle to even sell out Opening Day and who finished 29th of 30 with an average gate of 13,425. (Bright side: Outdrew the A’s, who’ve been alienating Oakland for years itching to leave.)

You are leaving a rich Dodgers ownership that had a fifth-ranked $241 million payroll last year for a penurious Marlins ownership whose $97.5 million player budget ranked 27th.

And, Mr. McCullough — did I still see championship-parade confetti in your hair at Monday’s official introduction? — you are leaving a city that loves its Dodgers for a city where the Marlins are the sixth-biggest team in town. Where baseball has become an afterthought dwarfed by the Dolphins, resurgent Hurricanes football, the Heat, the Stanley Cup champion Panthers and Lionel Messi and Inter Miami.

Love a challenge, Clayton?

Ya got one.

Need to make this clear fast in what will be seen and read as a negative column: I like McCullough as a manger hire, to the degree a first-time big league manager can be liked prior to the proof. He comes with the perfume of championship-winning. He impressed at his introductory. Seems ready. I liked the hiring of his predecessor, Skip Schumaker, too.

The problem is not Miami making bad hires to run its team. The problem is that they hire good men whom they then doom to likely failure by not spending competitively.

“We will spend money at the right time, I guarantee you,” principal owner Bruce Sherman declared on Monday, at a Marlins Park beer hall where the introductory was staged. “Nobody wants to win more than I do.”

Put it on the tombstone: Nobody wanted to win more, or spent less trying.

We have heard Sherman’s I-will-spend mantra before, followed by cost-cutting instead, fire sales like most recently trading away Jazz Chisholm Jr. and two-time batting champ Luis Arraez for prospects, rinse, repeat.

Nobody has mastered perpetual rebuilding like the Fish.

The reality McCullough inherits?

The low-budget Marlins, getting by on coupons and bargain shopping, are unlucky to be lumped in the same NL East with the big-spending Mets (No. 1 payroll in 2024 at $317.8 million), the No. 4-spending Phillies ($247.1 mill) and No. 6 Braves ($236.4M).

Some people point out there is no direct correlation or guarantee between spending and winning. Those are almost always the people not spending. There are exceptions, like club president Peter Bendix, hired last year, was in Tampa, and like the Detroit Tigers were last season.

But this is the norm: The top seven teams in spending last season all had winning records. Six of the bottom seven teams in spending had losing records.

The big-spending Mets, Phillies and Braves were a combined 60 games above .500 last year while the Marlins were 62-100.

Teams like the Marlins excuse their lack of competitive spending by trying to be smarter than everybody else and emphasizing the farm system, “player development.”

The problem there is that everybody else is smart, too, and also either has a strong farm system or is willing and able to go write a quick-fix check to sign a difference-making free agent such as Juan Soto while the Marlins settle for bargain-bin B-listers.

Miami right now is relying on the return of ace Sandy Alcantara from Tommy John surgery and the rise of future ace Eury Perez to lead a strong (when healthy) starting staff. The hitting lineup might be the worst in baseball. Mostly Miami is relying on a really strong, big-spending NL East suddenly all getting worse despite spending for talent.

Sherman played dodgeball Monday when asked about spending more.

The Marlins receive between $50 million and $55 million in TV revenue annually, triple what former owner Jeffery Loria got. Miami also benefits from MLB revenue sharing.

Even a shallow-pockets owner such as Sherman, festooned by a team of some 15-plus minority owners, can afford a player payroll of at least $150 million, midlevel at least, without losing money.

Let his words Monday echo and hold him to it:

“We will spend money at the right time, I guarantee you. Nobody wants to win more than I do.”

I hope he means it and follows through and proves me wrong.

Excuse the skepticism in the meantime as a new manager digs in with no choice but to play the hand he has been dealt while the division rivals around him go all in.