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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff WriterNov 10, 2024, 06:29 PM ET
- ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
The Miami Marlins are hiring former Los Angeles Dodgers first-base coach Clayton McCullough as their new manager, a source familiar with the situation told ESPN on Sunday.
McCullough, 44, spent the past four seasons on Dave Roberts’ coaching staff in L.A., the last of which ended in a championship. He succeeds Skip Schumaker, who was not brought back at the end of his contract and has since joined the Texas Rangers‘ front office as a senior adviser to president of baseball operations Chris Young.
A career minor league catcher, McCullough managed in the Toronto Blue Jays‘ minor league system from 2007 to 2014, finishing six of those seasons with winning records. He was then hired by the Dodgers as their minor league field coordinator, at which point he worked under current Marlins assistant general manager Gabe Kapler.
The Dodgers promoted McCullough to their major league coaching staff in 2021, inserting him as their first-base coach while having him work with outfielders and placing him in charge of their baserunning program. In 2024, McCullough played a big part in helping Shohei Ohtani evolve as a base stealer, paving the way for the first 50/50 season in baseball history.
McCullough was one of three primary candidates for the Marlins’ managing job, along with Will Venable and Craig Albernaz. Venable was named manager of the Chicago White Sox and Albernaz pulled out of the race, opting to remain the Cleveland Guardians‘ bench coach.
The Marlins interviewed McCullough over videoconference while the Dodgers navigated a World Series run in October. He met with staff members at the team’s spring training complex in Jupiter, Florida, last week and then again at LoanDepot Park in Miami on Friday.
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McCullough is the first managerial hire by president of baseball operations Peter Bendix, who took over baseball operations last offseason. McCullough will inherit a franchise once again in transition.
The Marlins surprisingly made the playoffs in 2023, getting swept in the wild-card round, then lost 100 games in 2024, a season that saw Bendix trade away established veterans including Luis Arraez, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Tanner Scott, A.J. Puk and Trevor Rogers.
Bendix’s goal is to build an infrastructure that will lead to sustained winning despite not possessing the revenue streams of some of the bigger-market teams in the National League East, similar to what he helped produce with the Tampa Bay Rays. That process, Bendix has acknowledged, will take time.
McCullough, who has experience developing young players but has also been around a championship culture, will help lead it.
