It isn’t often a manager from a losing team deserves to win Manager of the Year honors, but this is one of those times. Mike Redmond of the Marlins should win the award hands down.
Redmond shouldn’t win just because there are no other obvious candidates from teams currently in playoff position, either. He should win because he truly has been the best manager this season in the NL.
If ever a team reflects its manager, it is these young Marlins, a band of underappreciated workers enjoying themselves and making the most of what they have. Marlins GM Dan Jennings says the best word to describe Redmond is “grinder.” That’s a word that fits this team, too.
They are grinders enjoying the moment, and their current place in the sun.
“He absolutely has brought the staff and players together and created a fun environment,” Jennings said in tribute to his second-year manager. “The resiliency of this ballclub is a reflection of him as a person and manager, and that’s why guys are playing for him the way they are.”
These young Marlins have overcome a payroll that’s embarrassingly low at $47 million, the memory of the 62-100 season last year, and also, notably, the early elbow injury to their ace, the great Jose Fernandez. They have endured, which isn’t something such a young team does easily. They were 20-15 heading into the San Diego night in early May when Fernandez hurt his elbow, requiring Tommy John surgery. They lost that night 10-1, then lost next four nights to fall to 20-20.
Then they recovered nicely.
“It would have been easy to fold the tent after losing by some accounts the best pitcher in baseball, and certainly our ace,” Jennings said. “But these guys didn’t feel sorry for themselves. They just kept moving forward.”
That they did, and led by Redmond, who kept them together, and kept believing in themselves, they have played nearly .500 ball since and now stand at 71-72, which is within 3 ½ games of the second wild card. They are currently closer to a playoff spot than the Yankees, Indians, Blue Jays and Reds, a quartet of would-be contenders. Yes, with little more than two weeks to go, the Marlins can be considered relevant.
They probably won’t make it to the postseason, but don’t tell them that. Jennings says he isn’t all that surprised considering the character of the team. In that way, too, they reflect the manager, a career backup who was a nice behind-the-scenes influence on the 2003 surprise World Series-winning Marlins, which overcame a dreadful start to their season and wound up beating the mighty Yankees in the World Series in one of the great surprises in baseball history.
Until this run, Redmond, who had some nice moments in the big leagues and a knack for hitting Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine (more evidence that Redmond doesn’t back down from a challenge: he was 21 for 48 with a .438 career average against the great lefty), is best remembered in these parts for helping shaking that ’03 Marlins team out of a dreadful slump by taking batting practice in the buff. Fortunately, he was hitting indoors at the time.
In any case, he gave teammates something to take their minds off the slump while obviously showing supreme confidence in his ability to guide the baseball. (He was a better hitter than you probably remember with the bat, with six .300 seasons and a .287 career batting average.)
But his playing acumen in no way matches his managing ability. He recognized from the very beginning that he had a pretty special group ready to take a nice step in the standings, and they have done exactly that. Their payroll, which is less than half the league average and a whopping $30 million less than the next lowest in the NL (the Pirates), doesn’t reflect their talent so much as their experience. In any case there was plenty to overcome.
The importing of former Brewer Casey McGehee (.297, 70 RBI), who returned from Japan to give MLB one last try for $1.1 million, and the trade for talented 22-year-old Jared Cossart (4-1, 1.99) in a surprise deadline deal with Houston bolstered a team long on young talent. Giancarlo Stanton has taken the next step to bona fide superstardom and along with Dodgers great Clayton Kershaw is a co-MVP favorite in the NL, and Marcell Ozuna, Christian Yelich and others are emerging as prime-time players.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere is off the charts good. “No one person is bigger than any other,” said Jennings. (Yes, the team is fortunate that Fernandez and Stanton are the two such egoless superstars.)
Redmond could certainly become a rare manager to win top honors for a non-playoff team (assuming the Marlins don’t make it, that is). Rookie skipper Joe Girardi (“The Binder,” as opposed to Redmond “The Grinder”) managed to win in 2006 for the same franchise, when the Marlins actually finished with a losing record, 78-84. Regardless, Girardi still got fired after the season. (That won’t happen with Redmond.)
This year, the Nationals’ Matt Williams, the Cardinals’ Mike Matheny, the Pirates’ Clint Hurdle, the Dodgers’ Don Mattingly and the Giants’ Bruce Bochy all could make a case for Manager of the Year.
But the man they endearingly call Red is the one who’s earned the honor.
The Marlins team is doing what Redmond did as a player, which is to grind. The other word beside “grinder” that Jennings used to describe Redmond was “finisher.”
We will see over the next 19 games how good a finisher these upstart Marlins are. But no matter whether they make it to October or not, one thing’s sure: when it comes to NL managers, Redmond has earned the trophy.
