Despite Kim Ng building a postseason club this year, the Miami Marlins decided to hire a president of baseball operations instead, sources told ESPN, which led to her leaving the organization on Monday.
Ng, 54, held the position of highest-ranking female in a significant men’s professional sports front office in North America. As the first female general manager in MLB, the NFL, the NBA, or the NHL, she was hired by the Marlins in November 2020. Her contract includes a mutual option for 2024. Bruce Sherman, the owner of the Marlins, said in a statement that while the team exercised its option, Ng chose not to.
According to reports cited by ESPN’s Buster Olney, Ng was presented with a contract extension but declined it.
“Bruce and I talked about his idea to reorganize the baseball operations department last week. It became clear from our conversations that we didn’t totally agree on how that should seem, Ng told the Athletic on Monday. “I decided it was better to go. For my time in South Florida, I want to sincerely thank and appreciate the Marlins family and its supporters. The group made remarkable strides this year.
Other baseball executives were shocked by the team’s decision to replace Ng as director of baseball operations. They had praised her work with the 2023 Marlins. At the trade deadline, she strengthened a shaky offense with transactions for first baseman Josh Bell and third baseman Jake Burger, leading the Marlins to an 84-78 record and the final wild-card spot in the National League.
The Marlins increased their win total from the previous season by 15 games when Ng hired manager Skip Schumaker, who has a contract until 2024 with a team option for 2025. This is despite having the greatest run differential of any postseason team in history (-57 runs). This was the team’s first postseason trip following a full season since 2003 when the Marlins were dispatched by the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild-card round.
During her three years with the Marlins, Ng had to endure a great deal of turmoil. Hall Baseball Famer Derek Jeter resigned from his position as Marlins CEO in February 2022 due to differences with Sherman about the organization’s strategy. Gary Denbo, the Marlins’ vice president of player development and scouting, was fired four months later after having disagreements with staff members.
The Marlins made progress once Ng took over as manager. After being added to Miami’s rotation before the deadline in 2021, left-hander Jesus Luzardo developed into a dependable starter. Eury Perez, a rookie who made his debut this year just 27 days after turning 20 years old, was amazing. The Marlins’ beginning pitching was a strength, despite the problems of Sandy Alcantara, the current NL Cy Young Award winner who just had Tommy John surgery.
Second baseman Luis Arraez, whom Miami acquired for right-hander Pablo Lopez over the winter, gave the offense a boost by winning the NL hitting title with a.354 average while the offense was still having trouble.
Despite the failure of Miami’s free agent signings of first baseman Yuli Gurriel and third baseman Jean Segura, their replacements, Burger, and Bell, assisted them in navigating a competitive NL wild card race to secure the final position.
Bell hit 270/.338/.480 with 11 home runs in 53 games, while Burger hit 303/.355/.505 with nine. While Bell has an opt-out this winter, Burger is under team control for five more seasons and Bell for one more.
In the statement, Sherman stated, “We thank Kim for her work during her tenure with our organization & wish her and her family well. “We are going to start a thorough and broad search for new leadership as we intend to continue to invest in the Marlins organization in addition to the field.”
The Boston Red Sox, who sacked their chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom in September, have the only other position open at the moment for a head of baseball operations.