Barely an hour has passed since the Marlins fired manager Fredi Gonzalez and replaced him with Edwin Rodriguez, but the reactions have already started streaming in. The early verdict: Gonzalez deserves another chance and he'll probably get one. Here are some takes on the dismissal from around the league:
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports wonders who is good enough for Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria if Joe Girardi and Gonzalez are not.
- Braves GM Frank Wren told MLB.com's Mark Bowman (Twitter link) that he respects Gonzalez, but will not comment further until Bobby Cox has managed his last game.
- Bowman wonders if the Braves will find room for Gonzalez in their organization this season.
- Tracy Ringolsby of FOX Sports suggests (via Twitter) that Bobby Valentine could be the Marlins' next manager.
- Ed Price of AOL FanHouse says there's "some belief in the game" that the Marlins already have an agreement with Valentine. Price also suggests Loria had unfairly high expectations for Gonzalez.
- Gonzalez seemed to be taking the news well, according to Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post. The Marlins players, however, were walking around the team hotel "in shock."
- MLB.com's Joe Frisaro calls the firing "a stunning move."
- Jon Heyman of SI.com says Gonzalez deserves an award, not a dismissal, for standing up to Hanley Ramirez (Twitter link).
- ESPN.com's Buster Olney hears that the Marlins were "strongly considering" firing Gonzalez before his public clash with Ramirez (Twitter link).
Well he has been discussed as the best man to take over for Cox, right? Hire him now in some role to get him acquainted. i’m sure, considering the bright future ahead with all that young talent (but lack of cockyness/headstrong-ness), he’d have no problem taking a lesser role for now.
It’s shocking–SHOCKING–that Heyman’s view essentially boils down to, “Hey you kids, get off my lawn!”
Does this move make an Uggla trade more or less likely?
This proves that the Marlins are a horrible ran organization.
While he handled the Hanley situation like a man, and correctly….it was also how he handled the team through everything else….cold, carefree, with no sense of urgency. i dont hate the guy, but i think he is part of the problem. he has no passion for this game or at least this team. while he does not have the best pieces to the puzzle he didnt even try to make it work. if we still had him, he would still be pitching Pinto in tight situations. his method is “we’ll just keep running him out there.” This team needs someone with fire and passion. to anyone who watched marlins games, he just sat there, arms crossed….doing nothing. He doesnt have what it takes to manage a major league team. just how joe girardi said Josh Johnson would never be a major league starter. The one thing i agree with is its stupid to do now, unless you hire valentine on the spot. Fredi was a nice, classy guy who should have been allowed to finish the season, then run him out of town. but the marlins organization is no joke, just the owner. we have on of the best GMs in the game. but anyways, at least we’re trying something
While it looks like he manages like Bobby Cox, who is also rather calm, he also fights for his team and argues a lot and gets ejected, which fires up your team….Fredi doesnt do anything but mess up line up cards (who does that TWICE?). I wish he were a true bobby cox knockoff, cause at least we would see SOME passion. And for the record im not a braves fan, but bobby cox is the man. Speculation by Kurkjian and Olney is Fredi is preoccupied with the braves managing vacancy at the end of the season so he has kind of given up and wants to take over the braves.
nooooooooo i wanted valetine for the mets
This is really too bad. As an outsider, it was refreshing to see a manager stand up to a guy who refused to play the game the right way. This doesn’t say much for who is in charge when it all comes down to it….the players and their contracts.
This guy will certainly land on his feet, and it doesn’t really matter for Florida–they’re getting ready for their annual garage sale, aren’t they?
soxman why are you talking? garage sale? If your talking about the incident with Hanley that clearly has nothing to do with it. I watch the Marlins daily and Fredi is mediocre at best. He manages everything by the book, isn’t aggressive on the base paths, the bullpen may suck but he manages it like crap. Should the Marlins spend more? Yes, but they should still have a better record with the current team. They are already making strides, by signing Hanley and J.J. long term, with a new stadium in the wings. Please stop being ignorant and throwing the same old comments about the Marlins and their spending options because last time I checked they have two Rings in the trophy case.
The only reason for them to fire him is if they thought he would get the Braves position next year and bail on them.
The Marlins front office (and fans) expect a lot of out this team right now, and they should. This team should be well over .500, not struggling to stay afloat. Fredi’s not a guy that takes chances to win a ball game and that’s what this team needs.
Once a player hits arbitration, they trade them away. The only reason JJ and HRam is still around, is the fans would get pissed at them if they were traded.
Concur with the 2 posts above and wonder what planet, or baseball teams that BravesRed watches. Sure, Luria is an idiot, even the majority of other owners don’t even like the guy, but you take a team with this chump change of a payroll and year after year, stay as close to the top of the rankings as they do and say they are not well ran? What an idiotic statement to say the least, not to mention they have one of the better farm system’s in the game and draft VERY well each and every year, which is HOW they maintain such a competitive team, even trading away guys when they get expensive.
This team hangs onto people and they are the bane of the NL, even without acquiring Anibel Sanchez and Ramirez for Beckett a few years ago.
On a different note.. Going to be a far different play by play from now on with Tommy Hutton not being able to yell “Freddy” all the time. The guy was good and got to feel that Loria had a lot to do with this, not just Beinfest. Hope he finds a team that is fairly young and not a poor spending team again, or hopeless situation like in KC.
You obviously have no idea what you’re talking about and just follow the hype of “omg marlins don’t pay their players and have no fans lol omg”. There’s nothing wrong with having a low payroll team, especially if it fits the market. They didn’t trade Uggla and he’s currently their highest paid player ($7.8M), Cantu is making $6M, Ross is almost at $5M. This isn’t a team full of scrubs, but they’re also not superstars like A-Rod and CC that hike up the over all payroll of a team. Take away the most superstars from a team and their payroll will look like the Marlins.