5:44pm: The Marlins have announced that Jennings has been relieved of his duties. Miami won’t hire a replacement, but will instead shift his former responsibilities over to Hill while also increasing Berger’s role.
Jackson also provides more detail on the split, writing that Jennings wanted to stay on as manager but was told he’d instead be offered a return to the GM role. The then-skipper and owner Jeffrey Loria had butted heads over how he was running the club, says Jackson, “including whether to play Marcell Ozuna.”
Per the report, Jennings was preparing to report back to the organization on October 19 when he was told instead to stay home. Club president David Samson advised Jennings that he’d first need to talk things over with Loria — a conversation which seemingly never occurred.
Samson issued the following statement in a team press release:
“We want to thank Dan for his dedication and loyal service to the Marlins organization over the last 13 years. This is the continuation of the restructuring of our baseball operations department and we look forward to moving in a unified direction to reach our goal of becoming a championship-caliber ballclub that our fans richly deserve.”
5:06pm: The Marlins have decided to “dismiss” now-former general manager and manager Dan Jennings, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports on Twitter. Jennings, of course, was still under contract for three more seasons, meaning that Miami will likely remain on the hook for the $5.6MM left on his contract (though it could be offset when he’s hired elsewhere).
Jennings, 55, has been with the Miami organization since 2002. He served as the club’s general manager — working alongside president of baseball operations Michael Hill — from 2013 through the middle of 2015. After the team fired manager Mike Redmond in May, Jennings moved into the skipper’s seat in an eyebrow-raising move that didn’t pan out.
Though Jennings wasn’t able to turn around a disappointing club that he had a major hand in compiling, he is said to have managed to earn the trust of his players in spite of the odd situation. And while the Fish weren’t able to match their (arguably unreasonable) expectations, Jennings remains a highly-respected executive. Indeed, Bob Nightengale of USA Today notes on Twitter that Jennings has already drawn interest from other teams looking for assistant general managers.
While the move is somewhat surprising, given Jennings’s deep ties to the Miami organization and owner Jeffrey Loria, Nightengale adds that Jennings was hoping to be released from his obligations to pursue new opportunities. It appeared that his front office standing may have been marginalized while he was in the dugout, with the club having handed off some of his duties to VP and assistant GM Mike Berger. Club president David Samson said just weeks ago that Jennings was still the general manager, but it seemed even at that time that there was a lot to be worked out for the relationship to continue.
During his time in the GM chair, Jennings played a key role in a number of big moves. Most notably, perhaps, the club extended outfielders Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich, with the former receiving a record $325MM guarantee.
AA, your new GM chair awaits…
Can’t see him going to that mess.
It just goes to show that the Marlins are quick to throw the white flag on anyone at anytime but in other news the sun shined today.
Thank goodness. Now he can go somewhere he’s actually appreciated and will be able to make an impact instead of being controlled by an owner.
AA quit the Blue Jays Yesterday, and now the Marlings fire Jennings.
This reminds me of the Madon-Cubs.Rays situation
Because, certainly, if AA wanted to get away from a ridiculous ownership group, he’s been hoping for a chance to go to Miami!
Any better Idea?
Yes, take a year off or sign a one-year advisory role.
sounds like florida marlins baseball is fun place to work.
To bad for Dan Jennings, kinda seems like the club screwed him
As someone who works in television I think of the Marlins as reality tv, its a horrible place to work but you can get some experience if you can put up with it.
How very Marlins.
In a related move, Marlins promote Don Mattingly to GM
Manager/GM dual role actually
I’m assuming they bring back Jack McKeon to take over
Just another day in Loriastan.
I knew from the day he got named manager that he was gone. I just thought they’d fire him like a normal team. My mistake!
I know there are only a limited number of these coveted jobs but does anything ever end up good working for Loria??
Who didn’t see this coming? What chaos.