Marlins live by the DeSantis ethos
By 
I hate the Marlins for many reasons, some of them obvious, but I was actually kind of happy to see them make the playoffs this year as a reward for being the team that made the very postmature decision to hire Kim Ng as their GM. I can now go back to my regularly scheduled Marlins hatred, because Ng resigned after effectively being offered a demotion after overseeing the franchise’s most successful season since the first term of the Bush administration with a below-average payroll:
The Miami Marlins wanted to hire a president of baseball operations over general manager Kim Ng despite her constructing a playoff team this year, sources told ESPN, leading to her departure from the organization Monday.
Ng, 54, was the highest-ranking woman in a major men’s North American professional sports front office. The Marlins hired her in November 2020 as general manager — the first female GM in MLB, the NFL, NBA or NHL — and her contract included a mutual option for 2024. In a statement, Marlins owner Bruce Sherman said the team exercised its end of the option, but Ng declined hers.
Ng was offered a contract extension, sources told ESPN’s Buster Olney, but she turned it down.
“Last week Bruce and I discussed his plan to reshape the Baseball Operations department. In our discussions, it became apparent that we were not completely aligned on what that should look like and I felt it best to step away,” Ng told ESPN on Tuesday. “I wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Marlins family and its fans for my time in South Florida. This year was a great step forward for the organization, and I will miss working with Skip (manager Skip Schumaker) and his coaches as well as all of the dedicated staff in baseball operations and throughout the front office. They are a very talented group and I wish them great success in the future.”
The team’s desire to hire someone over Ng to run baseball operations surprised fellow executives around baseball, who lauded her work with the 2023 Marlins. Her deals for third baseman Jake Burger and first baseman Josh Bell at the trade deadline fortified a weak offense and helped push the Marlins to an 84-78 record and the final wild-card slot in the National League.
Jeffrey Loria might be gone from the team, but his spirit lives on. Maybe Chris Rufo is looking for a side gig.
While we’re here, congrats to Kelsey Plum and the Las Vegas Aces, and to Becky Hammon, who really should have a head coaching job in the NBA.