|
Season 2025:
Coming off an East division pennant and an NLCS loss to LAD, my owner gave me the "Win Championship!" directive.
Sadly, my squad crumbled under the pressure. With the pitching staff suffering injury after injury, and absolutely DREADFUL underachievements by the batters (multiple players hitting under .200), the supposed-WS contenders reached the June draft 10 games under .500.
With signs of things getting worse, not better, I pulled the trigger and fired my manager and hitting coach.
Despite an extremely hot month of July, the Marlins couldn't claw out of the 2-month hole they dug, finishing 84-78, missing the playoffs, and finishing dead last in the NL in every major batting category.
The team owner was none too pleased at missing the playoffs when demanding a championship and at the significant drop in attendance.
The team budget was cut by more than $10M in the offseason.
To make the situation worse, 2 fan-favorite star players had to be let go in the offseason as we couldn't afford them.
I spent an immense amount of time this offseason on finding ways to remold the squad and rekindle a little bit of the massive drop in fan interest.
I'm very worried, as another missed playoffs in 2026 could result in my firing. I'm very happy with the work I've done, however, and it looks like some prospects I've been grooming in the minors should be ready to fill some huge holes. They will have to. I need a good start to get attendance and revenue back up.We'll see. Starting spring training right now.
|