Marlins finally win a game, but potentially lose Schumaker after 2024 season ends

The Miami Marlins won and lost Sunday afternoon and no they did not play a twilight doubleheader.

The Marlins snapped a nine-game losing streak by defeating St. Louis in the third of a three game series behind six innings of one-run baseball by Miami starter Max Meyer. The Marlins defeated the Cards 10-3. The Marlins avoided becoming the first team since the 2002 Detroit Tigers to start a season 0-10.

However, the bigger picture surrounds the future of manager Skip Schumaker and the Marlins' top performers.

Schumaker was under contract through this season, with a club option for 2025. Before the game, it was learned that the Marlins would void the club option year, which would make Schumaker free to coach another team next season.

When Schumaker was hired, he was given a two-year deal with an option for a third, solely up to the club. The Marlins could have exercised the option to bring back Schumaker for a third season. However, over the winter there were discussions wherein the Marlins agreed to void the option during contract talks past winter, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

It is widely speculated that the Marlins had discussions with Schumaker this winter when Bendix took over, that he told Schumaker that they were going to strip the club down and rebuild as he did in Tampa Bay and hope that he can piece together a championship club. Schumaker might not have been down with the rebuild and might have demanded a ticket out of town before that happened.

It should be noted that Schumaker was originally hired by then-Marlins General Manager Kim Ng, who has since left the organization when her title was going to be diminished with the hiring of a President of Baseball Operations, who would turn out to be Peter Bendix, formerly of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Schumaker was the N.L. Manager of the Year in 2023 as he delivered the usual cellar-dwelling Marlins to a third-place finish in the N.L. East and earned a wild-card berth in the playoffs where they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild-card round. It was the Marlins' first full-season playoff appearance since 2003, when they won their last World Series title.

Schumaker could agree to a longer term contract during the season, but it does not appear that the Marlins are going to reward their manager with a new contract based upon the fact that they could once again, gut the team, and start rebuild number infinity.

One could also further surmise that as a result of that conversation, or series of discussions between Bendix and Schumaker, any arbitration eligible player on the Marlins could be subject to being traded in short order as the Marlins might be the first team to think about having a fire sale before its second homestand.

Arbitration eligible players include two-time batting champion Luis Arraez, Jesus Luzardo, Jazz Chisholm, Jr., Trevor Rogers, Tanner Scott and Jesus Sanchez. The Marlins would look to to deal them away for top prospects that they can add to their depleted farm system and try to build the nucleus of a good young team years from now.

It appears as though Marlins fans have been hearing wait until next year since 2003, when they broke up a World Series championship team that defeated the New York Yankees. Despite the playoff appearance last season, it was the Marlins only winning record in many years as the club continues to trade its assets for prospects that never pan out.

Stay tuned as it appears as though the drama is just about to start in Miami. Schumaker is only the first domino to fall for next season. The only question remaining is when does Miami start trading its arbitration eligible players for prospects who might not ever see a major league ballpark.