3 Biggest Miami Marlins mistakes in the Kim Ng era

The Miami Marlins grabbed headlines by hiring Kim Ng as the General Manager in November 2020. At the same time, The Fish received a lot of negative reactions from fans, unhappy that someone with no prior experience as a GM was hired to run the team. After making the playoffs in 2023, Bruce Sherman suddenly made her resign, by ultimately hiring Peter Bendix to run the team instead. Kim could've stayed on under him, but chose to leave instead. The best way to judge bad moves is not by hindsight, but by how they looked from the start.

The three biggest mistakes made by Kim Ng as the GM of the Miami Marlins

3. SIGNING JEAN SEGURA TO PLAY THIRD BASE

Prior to the 2023 season, Kim Ng signed Jean Segura to play third base for the Miami Marlins. This was immediately met with some concern. After all, Segura was never a third baseman before, and signing him to do so, in the same off-season as other questionable defensive moves were made was bizarre.

Was signing Jean Segura even smart regardless of position? He was already in decline, in fact he went from a 3.7 WAR to a 1.8 WAR from 2021 to 2022. His batting line went from .290/.348/.436 in 2021, to .277/.336/.387 in 2022. In 2023, he batted .219/.277/.279 and was worth -1.9 WAR, with a -0.7 dWAR.

Jean Segura had abysmal results with the Miami Marlins and was traded away in a salary dump mid-season. The 2 year/$17 million deal has been a flop for the team. The worst part is it was obvious from the start.

NEXT: THE ARGUABLY BIGGEST ISSUE

1. AVISAIL GARCIA

Kim Ng signed Avisail Garcia to play RF for the Miami Marlins for 4 years/$53 million, prior to the 2022 season. Ouch. This did not go well. The sad part is it looked terrible from the beginning. It was higher than his projected contract and didn't make much sense to begin with. Avi had a very up and down career and committing to him for 4 years didn't make much sense.

Avisail Garcia played for the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox between 2012 and 2016. His batting line during this period was .258/.310/.385. In 2017, he batted .330/.380/.506, with 18 home runs and 80 RBI, in 136 games and 518 AB. This seemed to be his breakout season, however it came with an abnormally high .392 BABIP, hinting at quite a bit of luck getting there.

Once Avi's BABIP normalized in 2018 to .271, he batted.236/.281/.438, with 19 home runs and 49 RBI in 93 games and 356 AB. Chicago move don from him after the season, and he found a new albeit temporary home with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2019. With Tampa, he batted .282/.332/.464, with 20 home runs and 72 RBI in 125 games and 489 AB.

Did I mention that he also proved himself to be a bit injury-prone? Oh and it gets worse, at this point he only had one truly good season, which came with a serious red flag in his BABIP. He had another good season in Tampa, but considering how they played matchups there was at least some concern there. The wheels fell off once again in 2020. This time he batted .238/.333/.326, with 2 home runs and 15 RBI in 53 games and 181 AB, with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Avisail Garcia did better in his platform 2021 season. This time he batted .262/.330/.490, with 29 home runs and 86 RBI, in 135 games and 461 AB. It was his contract year. At this point, Avisail was an obviously injury-prone gamble. It seemed a bit insane to commit to him for 4 years. Maybe 1 year, or at most 2. He has so far batted an abysmal .215/.260/.316, with 11 home runs and 47 RBI, in 135 games and 465 AB with The Fish.

Kim Ng made a lot of bad moves with the Miami Marlins, and I would go so far as to say that the team made the playoffs "despite", rather than "because" of her. To be fair, she did acquire 3B Jake Burger, but that was to solve an issue that she created earlier with the Jean Segura signing.