Marlins Fire Beinfest; Promote Hill, Jennings

SUNDAY: The Marlins have officially announced General Manager Michael Hill will replace Beinfest as president of baseball operations and Jennings will take over as GM. The statement also said there will be no further changes meaning David Samson's job as team president is safe. 

FRIDAY 3:25pm: As expected, assistant general manager Dan Jennings will assume Beinfest's duties, according to USA Today's Bob Nightengale (on Twitter). ESPN's Jerry Crasnick adds (also via Twitter) that the Marlins have fired Jim Fleming, who was a special assistant to Beinfest.

3:08pm: Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria has fired president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest, according to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald (on Twitter).

There's been a great deal of speculation regarding Beinfest's job security in recent weeks — so much to that Beinfest publicly stated it was taking a toll on him and his family. Beinfest reportedly confronted Loria asking for a firm answer about his future with the organization two weeks ago, but it appears that he didn't receive an answer until now.

Loria's reputation has grown as an owner who is overly active in the team's personnel decisions, and his displeasure with Beinfest has grown accordingly as Beinfest has been increasingly willing to tell Loria when he doesn't approve of those calls. The two clashed over hitting coach Tino Martinez's resignation from the team after allegations that Martinez, who had been hand-picked by Loria, was being abusive with players.

Several executives from around the league feel that Loria "has marginalized the front office" by overstepping his bounds to the point where he was dictating which pitchers started which game of a day-night double-header with the Twins earlier this season (as chronicled in this piece from Spencer). The Marlins' recent extension of Greg Dobbs was reportedly worked out by Loria, who didn't even tell Beinfest or GM Michael Hill that the contract was in the works.

Beinfest took over as president of baseball operations almost six years ago to the day. Under his watch, the Marlins signed Hanley Ramirez to a then-record extension and also signed Josh Johnson and Ricky Nolasco to extensions. Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle signed the largest free agent deals in Marlins history during Beinfest's tenure, as shown in MLBTR's Transaction Tracker. Notable first-round picks during his time as president of baseball ops include Christian Yelich and Jose Fernandez.

Edward Creech contributed to this post.