Details of Schumaker’s departure remain private, but Marlins’ manager search is underway

Two days after the Miami Marlins announced the organization and manager Skip Schumaker had mutually agreed to part ways, president of baseball operations Peter Bendix declined to provide details on the departure.

Bendix spoke to the media for 13 minutes Tuesday at loanDepot park but offered no insight into why the long-expected split ultimately occurred or whether there were discussions near the end about Schumaker staying on.

The two sides decided last winter to void the 2025 team option on Schumaker’s contract, leaving his status uncertain.

“I have a lot of respect for Skip. I enjoyed working for him,” Bendix said. “I’m going to keep private conversations I had with him private, but I wish him and his family nothing but the best.”

Bendix answered every question about Schumaker with a similar refrain about private conversations. In general, “we had a lot of conversations throughout the year and a lot of conversations at the end.”

The Marlins will “explore a lot of different candidates” to replace Schumaker and it will be “a thorough process,” Bendix said. But there is no timeline for making a hire “because we want to really get the right candidate for us.”

He added, “The ideal time is as soon as possible.”

Bendix said decisions about retaining anyone on Schumaker’s staff will be made after meeting with the coaches later this week. Those conversations will also determine if any of them will be considered for manager.

Schumaker was named the 2023 NL Manager of the Year in his first season with the Marlins. He guided them to 85 wins and a wild card spot — the franchise’s first postseason appearance in a full season since it won the 2003 World Series.

Schumaker also was well-liked by players, which was a big reason the team continued to play hard through a 2024 season marked by numerous injuries and roster changes. The Marlins finished with a 62-100 record after starting 0-9.

Bendix noted that the manager plays a crucial role within the team and the organization.

“But there’s a lot of different types of people, different types of ways to do that job really well,” Bendix said. “If you look around the league, there’s a lot of different ways of doing it. And what we need to figure out is what’s the right combination for us.”

What makes the Marlins’ manager job attractive?

“I’m excited about what we’re building,” Bendix said. “We saw a lot of positive things throughout the season even though it was a very frustrating, disappointing season. We were able to make improvements across the board. And we have a foundation for something that can be really exciting.”

The Marlins weren’t expected to be rebuilding after 2023. Of the 12 full seasons the franchise has now played since moving into publicly financed loanDepot park, 2023 is the only one that didn’t end with a losing record.

This season, the Marlins used an MLB-record 70 different players and traded away key players such as Luis Arráez, Jazz Chisholm Sr. and Tanner Scott. Bendix’s message to frustrated Marlins fans dealing with the losses and another roster shake-up?

“We’re building something exciting. We’re building something that has a chance to be successful for the long-term. And that’s our goal. We want to win,” Bendix said. “We want to be as good as we can as soon as we can. And we’re taking as many steps as we can toward that. And I think the foundation we’ve put in place give us a chance to achieve that.”

Bendix said discussions with Marlins chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman about the team’s financial commitment are “ongoing.”

“He’s been he’s incredibly supportive of giving us the resources, the space we need to build this organization into a long-term successful organization,” he said. “There’s a lot of different ways we can do that. We’ve been setting the foundation, investing in a lot of different parts of the organization that hadn’t been invested in as much before. A lot of those things are behind the scenes, but they’re also incredibly important.”

When asked how long it will take for the Marlins to be postseason contenders again, Bendix said, “It’s hard to put a direct timeline on things. I do think the foundation at the major-league level is strong. We added prospects that were at the upper levels of the minor-league system as well.”

Given the chance to be in the lineup consistently, several position players made a strong impression in the final two months of this season.

“They’re all young players and they’re all here for a long time,” Bendix said. “I can point to a lot of different players we saw development from, like Connor Norby, Xavier Edwards and Otto Lopez. Jake Burger had a phenomenal second half.

“There’s some exciting players that are still establishing themselves,” Bendix continued. “And also, if you look down below in Double A, Triple A, there’s a group of players that we were able to acquire that I think can all grow together and were really strong performers in the second half.”