Less than two weeks after the Marlins returned to the postseason, shocking news came from Miami on Monday that general manager Kim Ng will not be returning to the club in 2024. Here’s what you need to know:
- Marlins chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman announced that while the club exercised Ng’s team option to return for the 2024 season, they declined it.
- Ng said The Athletic that she and Sherman discussed his plan to revamp the Marlins’ baseball department last week. “It became clear in our discussions that we were not entirely on the same page about what this should look like, and I thought it was best to walk away from it,” Ng said.
- The Marlins hired Ng, MLB’s first female GM, in November 2020.
What else Ng said
“I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to the Marlins family and their fans for my time in South Florida,” Ng said. “This year was a big step forward for the organization, and I will miss working with Skip and his coaches, as well as all of the dedicated baseball operations staff and throughout the front office. They are a very talented group and I wish them every success for the future.”
I just spoke with Kim Ng, who resigned as Marlins GM this morning. She said: “Last week, Bruce (Sherman) and I talked about his plan to revamp the baseball operations department. In our conversations, it became clear that we didn’t entirely agree… 1/3
— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) October 16, 2023
What the Marlins said
“We thank Kim for her contributions during her time with our organization and wish her and her family all the best,” Sherman said in a statement.
Sherman added that the team’s search for “new leadership” begins immediately.
Ng’s surprise exit
In baseball, news of Ng’s departure was a shocking start to the week. The team just made the playoffs for the first time in Ng’s tenure, and Ng had only been there for three seasons, so a short time. It’s not yet clear exactly what happened, but there are early signs that it was a contract dispute. According to a report in the Miami Herald last month, Ng’s contract expired after this season.
Then on Monday morning, Sherman said he had chosen the Marlins side of a shared option for 2024, but Ng declined to exercise her part of it. (Both parties must agree if a mutual option is in play.) Ng may not have wanted to return without security beyond another season and without a multi-year contract. Furthermore, it is not known whether the alleged discussions about a long-term extension failed. — Evan Drellich, senior MLB writer
What should I make of her departure?
I spoke to Ng when she made that statement and that was all she wanted to say. But read those words, and it’s telling that the first sentence includes “his plan to transform the baseball operations department.” It’s not a stretch to think that after leading the Marlins to the playoffs for the first time (in a full season) in two decades, the team’s architect would want more influence – and more involvement – in the structure of baseball’s operations department from ownership than just the exercise of a mutual option year.
Ng’s departure — about 20 months after Derek Jeter’s departure as the team’s executive chairman — raises questions about Sherman’s vision for the organization. How can a franchise fail to retain not one, but two highly regarded baseball minds with championship experience? It’s a sobering and confusing day for a team that should be building to its most encouraging season in decades. – Tyler Kepner, MLB senior writer
What’s next?
Ultimately, Ng’s departure marks a surprising end to the tenure of the first woman to head a baseball operations team in a sport, a major development in a sport where front offices have long been homogenous and virtually exclusionary.
Her departure also leaves her old team looking for a new department head, which represents potential competition for the Boston Red Sox in this search. And Ng is of course free to take a job elsewhere. — Drellish
Backstory
Ng’s departure comes nearly two weeks after the Marlins reached the postseason for the first time in three years. Miami’s postseason was short-lived after it was defeated by the Philadelphia Phillies in two games in the Wild Card Series.
However, it was a significant moment for Ng and baseball as she became the first female general manager to lead a major league team to the playoffs.
Before arriving in Miami, Ng, 54, served as MLB’s senior vice president of baseball operations from 2011 to 2020. She previously worked as vice president and assistant GM of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2001 to 2011 and before that as new vice president and assistant GM of the York Yankees from 1998 to 2001.
Ng was the first woman in MLB history to apply for a GM position when the Dodgers spoke to her in 2005.
Required reading
(Photo: Sam Navarro / USA Today)