New Marlins president Bendix relishes ‘perfect fit’
MIAMI — Peter Bendix hadn’t planned on leaving the Tampa Bay Rays, even when he first learned the Miami Marlins were interested in having him lead their organization.
Bendix had spent his entire 15-year Major League Baseball career in the Rays’ front office, initially as an intern in 2009. He worked his way up to becoming the team’s senior vice president of baseball development, then general manager, a position he held since December 2021.
Tampa Bay had become his home. The team was his family. And he couldn’t see anything prying him away.
“I’m good where I am, truly,” Bendix recalled thinking when he learned of the Marlins’ interest. “I had a phenomenal situation with the Rays, been there for 15 years, had a lot of success, worked with phenomenal people. … The concept of not working there anymore, it needed to be the exact right situation with the right people in place, frankly, with the right owner.”
But in a deal that came together in just a few weeks, the Marlins convinced Bendix to leave Tampa Bay to become their new president of baseball operations. The Marlins announced the hiring last week, and Bendix was formally introduced by the team at its ballpark on Monday as the third president in club history.
What changed?
“I talked to Bruce,” Bendix said Monday, referring to Miami’s chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman.
During a hiring process that Bendix described as “thorough,” his comfort with the idea of a career change grew as he realized that both he and Sherman’s principles were almost perfectly aligned.
“And that was enough to get me to say, ‘You know what, if I’m going to leave an excellent situation. It has to be the perfect fit,'” Bendix said. “And this is a perfect fit.”
Sherman said that Bendix was “one of many, many” names that the Marlins sifted through during their search for a new leader.
Bendix will take over the department previously overseen by Kim Ng, who had been Miami’s general manager for three seasons. Ng left last month after she and Sherman could not agree on the structure of the department going forward; the Marlins had exercised a contract option to keep Ng in 2024, but Ng declined.
“I was hoping Kim would stay,” Sherman said. “I wish Kim nothing but the best. Terrific lady. Not lost on me, we’re in the playoffs, and I think she’ll be just fine. We had hours and hours and hours of conversations, Kim and I. She made the election not to continue. I respect that decision she made.”
Ng had a hand in constructing a roster that put Miami in the playoffs for the first time since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and the first time in a full season since the Marlins won the 2003 World Series. Miami lost to Philadelphia in the Wild Card Series last month.
The 38-year-old Bendix, a graduate of Tufts, outside Boston, has been part of a Tampa Bay team that has provided a blueprint for consistent success for nearly a decade. The Rays have made the playoffs in each of the past five seasons and have baseball’s fourth-best regular-season record over that span, behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston and Atlanta. Tampa Bay lost in the wild card round this year to eventual champion Texas.
The Rays’ success has come with a payroll that consistently ranks among the bottom third of the 30 teams, with many clubs spending at least $100 million more than Tampa Bay each year. The Marlins are another team that isn’t among the league’s big-spenders but are hoping to replicate some of Tampa Bay’s achievements.
“I’m not blind to Tampa’s success,” Sherman said. “We’re not going to be the 29th payroll. I think they’ve averaged the 29th highest payroll for about a decade or more, and they have the [fourth]-most wins. And that’s like off the charts on any statistical analysis. Whatever secret sauce he has … hopefully he brings that to this organization over multiple years.”
Sherman added he will give Bendix plenty of room to shape the organization. Sherman will weigh in as needed, but he expects that to be infrequently.
Bendix is inheriting a team with strong pitching but struggled before this season to attract high-profile hitters. Miami does have the National League batting champion Luis Arraez, who has expressed interest in a possible longterm contract.
Still, the Marlins recorded the sixth-fewest hits and fifth-fewest runs last season.
Bendix said he’s simply looking for “really good players” when asked his philosophy on roster construction.
“The thing that the Rays always told themselves that I will bring here is that it’s constant evaluation and it’s constantly looking to improve,” Bendix said. “And you have to always be looking to innovate, to try new things, to not be afraid to fail, because we need to maximize every part of the organization that we possibly can. We need to create every edge that we can. And it does not matter how successful any team has been to this point, you always need to be constantly improving.”
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
Wisconsin fired offensive coordinator Phil Longo on Sunday, a day after the Badgers’ 16-13 home loss to No. 1 Oregon.
In a statement, Badgers coach Luke Fickell thanked Longo for his two seasons with the program, while adding, “We are not where we need to be and believe this decision is in the best interest of the team.”
Wisconsin ranks 97th nationally in scoring and 102nd in passing while operating an Air Raid-style offense that Longo brought with him from North Carolina and other stops.
The Badgers, who lost starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke to a season-ending injury Sept. 14, had only three points and 88 yards in the second half against Oregon, which rallied from a 13-6 deficit entering the fourth quarter.
Wisconsin ranked 101st nationally in scoring in Longo’s 23 games as coordinator and failed to eclipse 13 points on its current three-game losing streak. Quarterback Braedyn Locke had only 96 passing yards against the Ducks.
Fickell did not immediately announce an interim coordinator for Wisconsin’s final regular-season games against Nebraska and Minnesota.
Fickell had long targeted Longo for a coordinator role, going back to his time as Cincinnati’s coach. Longo, 56, oversaw productive offenses at Ole Miss, North Carolina, Sam Houston State and other spots but never consistently got traction at a Wisconsin program that had operated dramatically differently on offense before his arrival.
“This team still has a lot in front of us and I am committed to doing everything we can to close out this season with success,” Fickell said in his statement.
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Eli Lederman, ESPN Staff Writer
Four-star quarterback Tramell Jones Jr. has committed to Florida, he told ESPN on Sunday, joining the Gators’ 2025 class four days after pulling his pledge from Florida State.
Jones, a four-year starter at Florida’s Mandarin High School, is ESPN’s No. 9 dual-threat passer in the Class of 2025. After multiple trips to Florida throughout his recruitment, Jones returned to campus Saturday, taking an official visit with the Gators during the program’s 27-16 win over LSU. A day later, Jones stands as the lone quarterback pledge in a 2025 Florida class that includes five pledges from the ESPN 300.
“I pretty much saw everything I needed to see when I visited last spring — I just love everything around the campus,” Jones told ESPN. “And then hanging out with the guys yesterday, seeing the camaraderie with each other, that really just sealed it for me.”
Jones was the longest-tenured member of Mike Norvell’s 2025 class at Florida State before his decommitment from the Seminoles on Thursday morning.
Jones’ exit came days after Norvell announced the firings of three assistant coaches on Nov. 10, including offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Alex Atkins. Jones was the first Florida State commit to pull his pledge in the wake of the staff shakeup but marked the Seminoles sixth decommitment since the start of the regular season, joining five ESPN 300 recruits who have left Norvell’s recruiting class across the program’s 1-9 start.
Jones’ commitment follows a key late-season victory for Billy Napier on Saturday and marks the Gators’ first recruiting win since athletic director Scott Strickland announced on Nov. 7 that Florida would stick with the third-year coach beyond the 2024 season.
Uncertainty over Napier’s future had weighed down Florida’s recruiting efforts in the 2025 class as the Gators began November with the No. 39 class in ESPN’s latest team rankings for the cycle. But Jones’ pledge comes as a boost for Florida one day after the Gators hosted a handful of high-profile flip targets, including five-star offensive tackle Solomon Thomas (Florida State pledge) and four-star wide receiver Jaime Ffrench (Texas pledge).
When Jones signs with Florida, he’ll arrive on campus flanked by fellow in-state offensive talents in four-star wide receivers Vernell Brown III (No. 44 in the ESPN 300) and Naeshaun Montgomery (No. 115), as well as four-star running back Waltez Clark (No. 223). Florida is also set to sign a pair of in-state defenders from the 2025 ESPN 300 between four-star defensive end Jalen Wiggins (No. 68) and four-star cornerback Ben Hanks Jr. (No. 121).
With Jones’ commitment, Florida has another jolt to its momentum on the recruiting trail as the Gators seek to chart a strong finish in the 2025 cycle next month. More imminently, Florida will host No. 11 Ole Miss on Saturday.
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