Loria: No Serious Discussion Of Managerial Change

A 3-10 start for the Marlins led to speculation that manager Mike Redmond might be on the hot seat, and after initially declining to comment one way or another on that speculation, team owner Jeffrey Loria endorsed Redmond when speaking to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports after last night’s victory. “He’s the manager. Period,” said Loria after watching his team improve to 8-11. “All team go through bad moments. Ours came early. … He did a very nice job last year, and he works hard.”

Heyman goes on to write that Loria insisted that the team isn’t giving any serious consideration to replacing Redmond, who signed a three-year extension through the 2017 season on the final day of the 2014 campaign. He also denied that Mets Triple-A skipper Wally Backman is or was a consideration at one point, noting that he doesn’t know Backman.

The Marlins have gone 5-1 since the initial report that Redmond could be on the hot seat, and while that’s a small sample of games, it did include a decisive sweep of the division-favorite Nationals, in which Miami outscored Washington 17-4. The Fish also took two of three against the Phillies last week as well.

Reports last week also indicated that GM Dan Jennings and president of baseball operations Michael Hill are both big fans of Redmond, and neither wanted to make a change. It would seem, then, that some combination of the team’s improved play over divisional opponents, combined with a vote of confidence from his top baseball ops executives, has swayed Loria to come around on Redmond. Last week, when asked whether or not Redmond was on the hot seat, Loria declined to comment on his job security, stating, “I’m not interested in palace intrigue. We’ve got games to win — period.”