Ozzie Guillen has been fired after one year as manager of the last-place Miami Marlins, it was first reported by the Chicago Tribune. Guillen is still owed roughly $7million on a 3 year contract. It’s also being reported that bench coach Joey Cora has been fired as well.
Most expected this news after Guillen made remarks in April that appeared to be sensitive to Fidel Castro, and insensitive toward the families that escaped Cuba and found a home in the Miami area. Pair that with the great expectations and epic failure in Miami, and you need to blame somebody besides ownership right?
This is a very interesting development for the NL East, because the Marlins were predicted to be a division winner by several experts and non-experts, and now they find themselves without the Manager that was supposed to help transform this franchise.
Prior to Guillen being hired, there were thoughts that Bobby Valentine could be a good fit in Miami. Is that still a possibility despite Valentine’s recent failure in Boston? Could Miami follow teams like St. Louis and Chicago and look at a former player like Jeff Conine as a potential Manager?
Other Candidates could include Chip Hale, Wally Backman, Tony Pena, and Brad Ausmus.
Mets fans will want to keep a close eye on this managerial search. A hiring of Backman could be a real smack to Mets fans, and a hiring of Valentine could prove very interesting.
