Ng, 1st woman GM in MLB history, leaves Marlins
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Jeff Passan, ESPN
The Miami Marlins wanted to hire a president of baseball operations over general manager Kim Ng despite her constructing a playoff team this year, leading to her departure from the organization Monday, sources told ESPN.
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.
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.
Despire a -57 run differential, the largest ever for a playoff team, he Marlins improved by 15 games from the previous season following Ng’s hiring of manager Skip Schumaker, who is under contract for 2024 with a team option for 2025. The playoff appearance, in which the Marlins were swept by the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild card round, was the first for the team in a full season since 2003.
Ng, who declined comment when reached by ESPN, had weathered significant tumult in the organization during her three years there. In February 2022, Hall of Famer Derek Jeter stepped down as CEO of the Marlins after disagreements with Sherman on the direction of the franchise. Four months later, the Marlins fired vice president of player development and scouting Gary Denbo, who had clashed with people inside the organization.
With Ng in charge, the Marlins took steps forward. Left-hander Jesus Luzardo, acquired at the deadline in 2021, grew into a reliable starter in his first full season in Miami’s rotation. Rookie Eury Perez, who debuted this year just 27 days after his 20th birthday, was a revelation. Despite the struggles of reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara, who recently underwent Tommy John surgery, the Marlins’ starting pitching was a strength.
The offense still struggled but received a jolt from second baseman Luis Arraez, who won the NL batting title with a .354 average after Miami acquired him for right-hander Pablo Lopez over the winter.
While Miami’s free agent signings of third baseman Jean Segura and first baseman Yuli Gurriel flopped, their replacements, Burger and Bell, helped them navigate a tight NL wild card race to lock down the final spot.
In 53 games, Burger hit .303/.355/.505 with nine home runs while Bell hit .270/.338/.480 with 11 home runs. Burger is under team control for five more season and Bell for another year, though he does have an opt-out this winter.
“We thank Kim for her contribution during her time with our organization and wish her and her family well,” Sherman said in the statement. “We will immediately begin a thorough and extensive search for new leadership as we plan to continue to invest in the Marlins organization both on and off the field.”
The only other current job opening for a head of baseball operations is with the Boston Red Sox, who fired chief baseball office Chaim Bloom in September.
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
The San Diego Padres have acquired second baseman Luis Arraez in a trade with the Miami Marlins for reliever Woo-Suk Go and prospects Dillon Head, Jakob Marsee and Nathan Martorella, the teams announced Saturday.
The Padres also received nearly $7.9 million in cash considerations, leaving them responsible only for the major league minimum salary for Arraez.
The transaction represents the first significant move for the Marlins since Peter Bendix took over as the team’s president of baseball operations in November after Kim Ng departed. It marks the beginning of the Marlins’ teardown of an underachieving roster that has produced the third-worst record in the majors at 9-25 with a minus-61 run differential after reaching the postseason in 2023.
On the other side, it’s another aggressive deal for A.J. Preller, the leader of the Padres’ front office since 2014. Arraez, one of the sport’s best contact hitters, will give the Padres a needed left-handed-hitting weapon after Juan Soto was sent to the New York Yankees in December. San Diego is 17-18 with a plus-6 run differential.
“It’s really amazing — that guy is a baller,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said about Arraez after the Padres’ win Friday night. “He’s probably the closest to Tony Gwynn right now, so looking forward to seeing him in our lineup. … The guy’s a pure hitter, and I can’t wait for him to help us.”
Miami is paying San Diego $7,898,602 of the $8,491,398 remaining for the final 149 days of Arraez’s $10.6 million salary. That left his cost to the Padres at $592,796 — exactly a prorated share of the $740,000 minimum.
Arraez, 27, was the Marlins’ best player, an All-Star and batting champion each of the past two seasons. This season, he is batting .299 with a .719 OPS in 33 games, all started at second base. He also has extensive experience at first base.
“When a guy like that is taken out of the lineup or potentially traded, you feel it, because he’s such a good kid and one of the leaders in that clubhouse,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said, “so there’s definitely a shock value.”
Arraez is expected to start games as the Padres’ designated hitter, but the club plans to cycle through the DH spot. Jake Cronenworth, Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado could also get at-bats there. Bogaerts has been the club’s starting second baseman.
Go spent seven seasons in the Korean Baseball Organization before signing a two-year deal with a mutual option worth $4.5 million guaranteed during the offseason. The 25-year-old right-hander appeared in 10 games for Double-A San Antonio, posting a 4.38 ERA across 12⅓ innings after failing to make the Padres’ bullpen out of spring training.
Head was the Padres’ first-round pick (25th overall) last year out of high school. The 19-year-old center fielder is batting .237 with a .683 OPS and three stolen bases in 21 games in low-Class A.
Martorella is batting .294 with an .820 OPS in 23 games in San Antonio. The Padres selected the 23-year-old first baseman in the fifth round of the 2022 draft. Marsee, a 22-year-old outfielder, has spent the season in San Antonio batting .185 with two home runs. He was a sixth-round pick in 2022 out of Central Michigan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — Yankees ace Gerrit Cole threw off a mound Saturday morning for the first time since being shut down in mid-March, checking off another box in his road back from an elbow injury.
Cole took the mound in the Yankees’ bullpen at 10:40 a.m., hours before New York took on the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium. He said he threw 15 pitches, 13 for strikes and all fastballs. He said the pitches averaged 89 mph.
“It was exciting,” Cole said. “This was a good day for me. I was fired up.”
Cole, 33, started the season on the 60-day injured list after being diagnosed with nerve irritation and edema in his pitching elbow following one spring training outing. The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner is eligible to come off the injured list May 27, but the Yankees have declined to share a timetable for Cole’s return.
On a scale from 1 to 10 — 10 being game ready — Cole reported he is “somewhere between 1 and 5.” He said how his body responds over the next 48 hours will decide when he throws off a mound again.
Cole’s injury was a significant blow to a club with championship-or-bust aspirations, but the Yankees’ starting rotation has been one of the best in the majors and a primary reason for the team’s 21-13 start. The rotation’s 3.43 ERA through Friday ranked ninth in the majors. Its 183⅔ innings pitched ranked fourth.
Luis Gil, Cole’s rotation replacement, logged the best start of his young career Wednesday, holding the explosive Baltimore Orioles scoreless on two hits over a career-high 6⅓ innings. Gil, 25, has recorded a 3.19 ERA in 31 innings across six starts despite leading the American League with 20 walks.
Earlier this week, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said neither the team’s nor the rotation’s success will impact Cole’s timeline. Asked whether the overall success has made his absence more “palatable,” Cole was unsure.
“I don’t really have anything unpalatable to compare it to,” Cole said. “You know what I’m saying? So I’m just kind of like, just like everybody else, just glad we’re playing well.”
Also on Saturday, the Yankees reinstated infielder Jon Berti from the 10-day injured list and designated former first-round pick Taylor Trammell for assignment.
Berti, 34, has been out of the Yankees’ lineup since April 10 with a left groin strain. The Yankees had selected Trammell off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 18, and he collected 1 hit, 1 walk and 2 runs in five games with New York.
Field Level Media contributed to this report.
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