Skip Schumaker ‘had all the traits’ to be a manager. Now, Year 1 as Marlins skipper begins

John Mabry has seen the evolution of first-year Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker during the past 18 years, and he has seen it while serving a variety of roles.

He was there at the beginning. Mabry was Schumaker’s mentor when Schumaker made his MLB debut with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2005, the one year they were teammates before Mabry’s journeyman career took him to play two more seasons with the Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies.

He returned as an assistant hitting coach for the Cardinals in Schumaker’s final season with the team in 2012, one year after Schumaker helped St. Louis win a World Series title. Now, it was Schumaker in the winding down phase of his playing career. He played that one final season with the Cardinals, one with the Los Angeles Dodgers and two with the Cincinnati Reds before moving on to front office and coaching roles.

Ever since those initial interactions when Schumaker made his MLB debut in 2005, Mabry thought Schumaker had the potential to be a coach or a manager whenever his playing career came to an end. As he walked off a back field at the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium complex last week, Mabry thought about something he learned from the late George Kissell, who spent nearly 70 years in the Cardinals organization.

“Look for future coaches while they’re playing,” Mabry said. “They’ll have the traits. Skip had all the traits. He was available, teachable, processed information quickly.”

Now, a little more than a decade later, Mabry is on hand again for the latest stage of Schumaker’s career. He’s an assistant hitting coach on Schumaker’s first staff with the Marlins.

Eighteen years since Mabry took Schumaker under his wing, how much has Schumaker changed?

In many senses, Mabry said, not much at all.

“He was pretty similar to what he is now,” Mabry said. “He has a thirst for knowledge. He’s a hard worker, very thoughtful, considerate of others, professional. All the qualities you look for in folks that you want leading a club.”

Now, Schumaker’s time to lead has come.

Five months after being hired to be the successor to veteran Don Mattingly and after six weeks of spring training, Schumaker’s first career game as manager is Thursday, when the Marlins host the New York Mets at 4:10 p.m.

As Schumaker embarks on this new endeavor, one where he is in charge, isn’t going to change who he is as he settles into this new role.

“I’m pretty straightforward,” Schumaker said. “I don’t sugarcoat much. I always wanted to know where I stood. I wanted to know where I messed up, where I can get better. These guys just want to know where they’re at, and I think that you get confused when there’s no conversations — tough ones, the good ones, whatever it is. We’ll show them in meetings, we’ll show them in front of people, we’ll show them one on one. You have to stop being sensitive and check your feelings a little bit. It’s gonna be OK if we’re just trying to get better.”

And the Marlins need to get better.

They finished last season with a 69-93 record and went 24-40 in games decided by one run. They have an improved roster this year — led by ace Sandy Alcantara and a lineup infused with new additions in Jean Segura, Luis Arraez and Yuli Gurriel to complement a returning group in Jazz Chisholm Jr., Garrett Cooper, Joey Wendle and Jon Berti, among others — but face a tall task ahead in a gauntlet of a National League East division that features three teams that made the playoffs last season in the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies.

Even with the challenges ahead, Schumaker wants the Marlins to be in win now mode, a key trait that won over general manager Kim Ng and principal owner/chairman Bruce Sherman. Whether that comes to fruition remains to be seen.

But with that said, as spring training neared its final days, Schumaker said he hadn’t put too much thought into what Thursday would feel like for him. He had other priorities ahead of that on his list.

“I haven’t thought about it yet,” Schumaker said. “I think what that 26-man [roster] looks like is important. Getting guys out of here healthy is important. After than, when we get to loanDepot [park], I think it’ll probably hit.”

When reality does hit Thursday — whether it’s when he first steps into the ballpark, when introductions are made on the field pregame or when his ace Sandy Alcantara throws the first pitch — Schumaker hopes the emotions will be fleeting. He will cherish the moment, of course. But after that, it’s time to get on with his work. That’s the nature of the job.

And in this job, all eyes will be on him, a first in his career.

He was a role player who worked his way into the everyday lineup. He was mostly behind the scenes as a member of the San Diego Padres’ front office before spending four years on their coaching staff — two as first base coach, two as associate manager. And then, most recently, he was the bench coach for the Cardinals last season to first-year manager Oliver Marmol.

He will lean on those past experiences as he wades into a new realm as manager. He played under some great ones, including Tony La Russa from 2005 to 2011 in St. Louis and Mattingly in 2013 in Los Angeles.

“As a bench player, you get to watch the game in a different perspective and watch certain managers do their thing,” Schumaker said. “There’s a lot of different examples I can give you, but I think the main thing is they built really good staffs around them, the winning teams I was with, and they knew what winning looked like. There were non-negotiables, there was accountability, all of that stuff.”

Schumaker, so far, has seemed to hit most of those notes in the lead up to his first season.

He built a staff full of coaches he either directly worked with before (like Mabry and outfielders coach Jon Jay) or who have proven track records (like hitting coach Brant Brown and infielders coach Jody Reed).

“He was the ultimate teammate,” said Jay, who played with Schumaker from 2010 to 2012 for the Cardinals. “You do your research about Skip Schumaker and he’s a pro’s pro. .. You can see from the staff that he’s assembled, it’s a lot of good people.”

He has laid down the rules of what he expects from his players. He’s not too far removed from being in the position where the players he oversees are at currently.

“He’s very serious, but he wants to have fun,” Chisholm said. “He brings the control, but he lets you be yourself.”

Schumaker will be himself, too, even as the evolution of his career takes him to a new role.