Trust and continuity between Peter Bendix, Skip Schumaker will be critical for Miami Marlins
Throughout the initial stages of his time as the Miami Marlins president of baseball operations, Peter Bendix said he has been “invigorated by the people” he gets to work with.
One of those people in particular is manager Skip Schumaker, who in his first season guided the Marlins from a projected fourth-place finish in their own division to securing a playoff spot in a full season for the first time in 20 years.
“I’m really fortunate to be able to work with him,” Bendix said.
The relationship between a manager and the front office is one that generally evolves behind the scenes and is one where trust from both ends is paramount. It was evident from the start last season that Schumaker and former general manager Kim Ng had confidence in what the other was doing to make the club as competitive as possible. Ng left the organization after the 2023 season when owner and principal chairman Bruce Sherman informed her he was planning to hire a president of baseball operations above her.
Schumaker is now starting that trust process all over again, this time with Bendix.
Bendix said in an interview with the Miami Herald on Tuesday that he and Schumaker are aligned on the vision for the franchise moving forward as Miami tries to build on the momentum from last season’s postseason appearance, not just for 2024 but for the years ahead.
Schumaker said during MLB’s winter meetings in December that he and Bendix have had their share of “organic conversations” as Bendix started his process of understanding where things stood with the franchise.
But Schumaker also said Friday during a scrum with reporters at the Marlins’ annual FanFest that he does not need — nor does he want — Bendix to have to touch base with him about every decision as Bendix navigates through his first offseason with the club. Schumaker understands Bendix has the organization’s best interests at heart and will do his part to execute that vision.
“I will say that I don’t need to be babysat,” Schumaker said. “I don’t need to get a call every day. That’s not who I am. I don’t need to be coddled like ‘I’m the manager, so you’ve got to call me.’ I don’t need that. He has a lot on his plate that he’s trying to figure out. I told him, ‘Call me when you need to call me. You don’t need to call me right away. Figure stuff out. You’ve gotta you got a lot of hiring to do.’”
Most of that hiring has been on the front office side. Bendix said he wanted “to be able to bring in some people to complement the people who are already here — the people who have a lot of good knowledge and foundation and all these different things — and combine it all into one.” He has done that by added four new members to his baseball operations department in assistant general manager Gabe Kapler, director of player development Rachel Balkovec, director of amateur scouting Frankie Piliere and director of baseball operations Vinesh Kanthan.
“A lot of this offseason has been hiring really good people,” Schumaker said. “I think Tony La Russa told me this years ago: Whatever you do, be really good at hiring people. That is true. Not only the staff, but the only way that this works is if the front office and the coaching staff and clubhouse guys are on the same page. Hiring good, high-character, hard-working people, that’s how this is going to be sustainable.”
The Marlins’ coaching staff only had to replace one person with hitting coach Brant Brown leaving to be the Seattle Mariners’ bench coach. Schumaker promoted John Mabry from assistant hitting coach to fill Brown’s void and hired Bill Mueller as an assistant hitting coach.
“There wasn’t a ton to talk about before the New Year,” Schumaker said. “Now that the New Year has happened, now it’s starting to get the big-league roster figured out, exactly what the NRIs [non-roster invitations to spring training] look like, seeing what the free agency stuff looks like and then seeing what the best decisions [are] that have to be made to get back to the postseason.”
The roster is the lone aspect of the franchise that hasn’t seen an upgrade. The team will be without starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara after he underwent Tommy John surgery. The Marlins also haven’t replaced the offensive production lost by Jorge Soler, who entered free agency after hitting a team-high 36 home runs. The Marlins are hoping a full season of Josh Bell and Jake Burger, both acquired at the trade deadline last August, help offset some of the production lost from Soler as well as seeing strides from the likes of Jazz Chisholm Jr., Jesus Sanchez, Bryan De La Cruz and Nick Fortes among others.
The anticipation is the Marlins will make some sort of move to add to the offense, but Schumaker doesn’t want to have to rely on what might happen as he gears up for spring training and the season.
“If I look outside of our own organization, then I’m not giving credit or doing my job of trying to get our own guys better or not realizing who we have inside that clubhouse,” Schumaker said. “I don’t really look too far outside, to be honest. ... I think it’s exciting what Peter’s doing in building the minor-league system up. The infrastructure on the development side is real. So when you don’t see a lot of free agent signings, it doesn’t mean nothing is happening. It’s just not true.”
Bendix appreciates that aspect of Schumaker’s makeup. He watched from a distance how Schumaker got the Marlins to buy in last season and how that trust resulted in unexpected results from those outside the organization — an 84-78 record, 33 one-run wins, 41 come-from-behind victories and, most importantly, a playoff berth.
Bendix’s goal is to help replicate that. That starts with building a bond with his manager.
“The relationship that we have, that’s all the stuff that fans don’t necessarily see unless there’s something wrong,” Bendix said, “but it’s such an important part of the job to get the most out of the players to get them ready to play every single day. ... I’m really excited to work with Skip to see how he was able to do that.”
