Florida Marlins Manger Edwin Rodriguez stepped down this morning amid much speculation that his job was in jeopardy. Florida Marlins Bench Coach Brandon Hyde was named interim manger for today’s game. However, this is yet another strange move for this team and overseen their owner Jeff Loria, who I happen to think his among the worst owners in all of sports. Rodriquez was on the job for about a year taking over around this time last year when Loria fired then manger Fredi Gonzales. To be fair the Marlins are stuck in a 1-18 rut, and a firing was certainly on the horizon.
In fact, Rodriguez managed 63 games as chief of the Marlins and had a 78-85 over that time span. He leaves with the Marlins in last place in the National League East with a 32-39 record. I am not saying Rodriguez was the answer for this club, or that they are clearly better with than without him. I am pointing out the fact that there is no clear upgrade here, and this team continues to make moves that don’t seem to make a lot of sense.
For the second year in a row a Marlins manger has been fired (quit whatever that is an argument over semantics), before the All Star break, and we also have to consider Loria also ran current New York Yankees skipper, Joe Girardi, out of town. This is yet another story of a bad owner doing things (I think it is clear Rodriguez was going to be fired) for some reason, that none of the rest of us can figure out. There are also some reports that Loria wants Jack McKeon to serves as the teams long term interim manger.
McKeon is the 80-year-old former Marlins manger he won the 2003 World Series with the team. He retired from baseball in 2005.
