‘He embodies what this team is’: How Skip Schumaker laid the foundation for Marlins’ success

When Skip Schumaker boils his job as the Miami Marlins’ manager down to the simplest parts, he describes it like this:

“My job is to give the players everything I can to protect them and to serve them,” Schumaker said. “My job is to have their best interests.”

Whether it’s arguing on their behalf with umpires (he’s one of nine managers this season with at least five ejections), having the tough conversations to help a player improve, changing a players’ role to put him in the best place to succeed, or being there to celebrate their achievements, Schumaker has managed to find ways to push all the right buttons in his first season as a big-league manager.

But no example may go to greater lengths to qualify Schumaker’s persona than what unfolded on Thursday night at Citi Field.

The Marlins had rallied for a 2-1 lead in the top of the ninth inning over the New York Mets when the game entered a rain delay. For three hours, they waited for a chance to finish the final inning and secure a win that would go a great way toward Miami’s playoff hopes.

Finally, a little after midnight, the tarp was taken off the field but the game was ultimately suspended a half hour later.

Schumaker was out there doing anything — everything — he could to get the game resumed. He talked (to put it conservatively) with MLB officials alongside general manager Kim Ng about what could be done to finish the game as rain continued to fall on the now-exposed infield dirt. He even at one point picked up a portion of the tarp and began clearing it when the groundscrew stopped after placing it in left field.

None of his attempts helped get the game resumed, but the effort was not lost on the players in his clubhouse.

“He embodies what this team is: Resilient, tough,” catcher Jacob Stallings said. “We draw a lot from the vibes he gives off. We get a lot of our edge from him. We just feed off of it. I think that’s why we’re in the position that we’re in.”

That position: The playoffs. The Marlins clinched their spot in the postseason, the first time in a non-shortened season since winning the World Series in 2003, with their 7-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday.

They have done so in his first season despite minimal (if any) external expectations, a few slumps down the stretch after a fantastic first half, his starting rotation being ravaged at the end of the season and some key players hobbling to the finish line.

“It’s been a crazy year,” Schumaker said.

And Schumaker deserves credit for navigating the Marlins through it, even though he tries to deflect individual praise when asked about the team’s success.

To Schumaker, any stats or accomplishments that go on his record are “staff stats.” Any big moments come from the team being prepared for the task at hand.

But that preparation stems from the top. It stems from the principles Schumaker instilled and the buy in he was able to get from his players from the very beginning.

And you’ll be hard pressed to find someone inside the organization who disagrees.

“He came in with the winning culture, the winning mindset, winning work ethic,” center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “He made us become a closer clubhouse as well. That’s how I feel about his first year. He’s been amazing for us as players. We talk among each other saying how strong he is as a leader and how great he is as a manager. ... It’s been amazing.”

‘They’ll remember that forever’

As the final out was being recorded Saturday, as Tanner Scott threw his final fastball to set up the dogpile on the infield grass at PNC Park, the entire season flashed before Schumaker’s eyes.

There was spring training, when he began establishing the expectations he wanted for this team. There were all the peaks and valleys, all the one-run wins and comebacks, all the injuries and next-man-up moment and all the ways his players showed their grit and resiliency.

And then his mind went to his family — his wife and two kids, his parents — who understood the sacrifice he was making to be away from them to chase this dream but weren’t able to be in Pittsburgh to celebrate.

“They’re in California and I’m here,” Schumaker said. “I’m just grateful that they are allowing me to do this.”

Family is always at the heart of everything Schumaker does.

And inside that visitor’s clubhouse in Pittsburgh, where beer and champagne flew through the room at will, he saw the group finally get to reap the benefits of the work they put in for the season.

“They’ll remember that forever,” Schumaker said.

They made sure Schumaker will remember it, too.

About a half hour into their celebration, shortstop Joey Wendle huddled the players together for one of his post-game speeches, a ritual that became commonplace throughout the season. Wendle held a blue baton in his hand, a symbol for the “pass the baton” mind set Schumaker has instilled in them all season, and began to heap the praise of that night’s most valuable player.

On this night, he passed the baton to Schumaker, who was then promptly loaded into a laundry cart and doused with beer by injured ace Sandy Alcantara.

“We ended up trusting each other and loving each other,” Schumaker said. “That’s why we’re here.”

‘He knows what it takes to win’

The winning culture was preached from the start.

At his introductory press conference on Nov. 3, Schumaker established that his main goal wasn’t just winning games; it was getting to the playoffs.

“And not just one year,” Schumaker said, “but year after year after year. That’s the expectation I’m going to bring when I enter that clubhouse.”

After all, that was the expectation put upon him throughout his entire baseball career.

Schumaker played 11 MLB seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals (2005-2012), Los Angeles Dodgers (2013) and Cincinnati Reds (2014-2015), winning a pair of World Series titles with the Cardinals in 2006 and 2011. He was never the star on his team, but he managed to carve out a career in which he played 1,149 career games and made the postseason six times.

After retiring from playing in spring training 2016, he served as an assistant to baseball operations and player development for the San Diego Padres from 2016-17, joined San Diego’s field staff as the first-base coach (2018-19) and associate manager (2020-21) and then rekindled his relationship with the Cardinals as their bench coach in 2022. Two more trips to the playoffs — one with the Padres in 2020, another with the Cardinals in 2022 — ensued.

“Skip brings so much experience from the playing side and then in recent years from the coaching side,” Wendle said. “He’s been in a lot of organizations. He’s been on a lot of really good teams, played with Hall of Famers, MVP. He knows what it takes to win.”

Left-handed pitcher Jesus Luzardo said returning players could tell “instantly” that a new culture was being established.

“Everyone really bought into that,” Luzardo said.

And, frankly, they wanted it — needed it, even.

“They were sick of losing,” Schumaker said. “They knew there’s enough talent in there to win, and that’s what I think was the most frustrating [for them]. I didn’t come into a team that was super young and still in a developmental stage. I came into a team that was ready to win.”

Added Alcantara: “Since the first day he came here, he gave us a lot of energy, a lot of confidence. That’s what we needed. He had an opportunity and we trust each other.”

‘We’re here to get down to business’

A key factor to that early buy-in: Constant communication. Schumaker was up front with players from the start about his expectations, both from the players and of himself.

“It’s the way he approaches the players,” outfielder Bryan De La Cruz said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s [Jorge] Soler, De La Cruz or any other guy, he talks to you as a person and he tells you what he wants from you. He doesn’t go around. He tells you things as it is and is a good communicator.”

Third baseman Jake Burger, one of the Marlins’ key trade deadline acquisitions, can vouch for that, too. Shortly after the Marlins traded for him on Aug. 1, sending a top pitching prospect in Jake Eder to the Chicago White Sox in return, Burger received a text message from Schumaker.

The message: “We’re here to get down to business.”

“Just from watching this team the first four months when I was in Chicago and then obviously when I got here, it’s like, ‘Yeah, Skip’s really good at creating that culture and creating that mindset of just never giving up and working as hard as you can,’” Burger said.

That once again stems back from Schumaker’s playing days. As a role player on good teams, he always wanted to know what he needed to do to get better. He would take a tough conversation over no conversation.

“I don’t sugarcoat much,” Schumaker said earlier this season. “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.”

Skip Schumaker’s evolution

As Schumaker was establishing his standards, he was simultaneously trying to find his own footing.

He had experience as a coach, but not as a manager. He knew there was a balance to be made between trusting his players and coaching staff but not relinquishing full autonomy, between making decisions but not micro-managing.

“It’s hard,” Schumaker said, “because you want to change it right away, but you didn’t hire guys to be puppets. You hired guys to help you create that culture that you’re looking for and I’m grateful that those guys trusted me to join me in this journey. I learned to trust more than maybe I was used to back in the day.”

The results

And, as a result, the Marlins got better. A lot better.

They learned how to compete in clutch situations, how to find ways to win late in games, how to rally around each other to the point where the team result took priority over individual accomplishments.

Schumaker, too, learned how to navigate key moments in a game and a season. He wasn’t afraid to shake up his lineup if he felt things were getting stagnant. He changed his closer three times — first A.J. Puk to start the season, then David Robertson after the trade deadline and now Tanner Scott in

That has led to the 41 comeback wins, the 33-13 record in one-run games, the 7-3 record in extra innings.

And, finally, it all consummated in a playoff berth.

They didn’t fold after an eight-game losing streak following the All-Star Break. Or a stretch when they dropped 10 of 13 to fall below .500 in late August. Or when reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Alcantara’s season came to an unceremonious end with a UCL sprain in early September to make an already thin starting rotation even thinner.

The belief was — and always has been — that this team can succeed regardless of who’s playing, regardless of the circumstance, regardless of how much the cards could be stacked against them.

They have Schumaker to credit for that.

“I don’t know that you can expect that from a first-year manager,” Wendle said, “just the way that he handles himself and the way that he presents himself in front of the team and just kind of the expectations that he’s laid out for us.”

But the job is merely just beginning. There’s a lot left for Schumaker to accomplish this season and beyond.