Author: rincon

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The Miami Marlins are hiring former Los Angeles Dodgers first-base coach Clayton McCullough as their next manager, a person with knowledge of the hiring told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement hadn’t been announced. ESPN first reported the hiring.

McCullough, 44, was hired by the Dodgers in 2015 as their minor league field coordinator and had been the first-base coach on Dave Roberts’ staff since the 2021 season. The Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in five games last month to win their eighth World Series title.

A former minor league catcher, McCullough was a manager in the Blue Jays’ minor league system for seven seasons.

He takes the job previously held by 2023 NL Manager of the Year Skip Schumaker, who parted ways with the team in September after just two seasons. The Marlins went 146-178 under Schumaker, who was hired in 2022.

McCullough, a Greenville, North Carolina, native, spent one season at Vanderbilt before transferring to East Carolina University. He was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 22nd round in 2002 and played in their minor league system from 2002-2005.

The Marlins also considered former Cleveland Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz and Will Venable, a former associate manager for Texas. Venable was hired by the Chicago White Sox as their manager on Oct. 30, and Albernaz reportedly withdrew from Marlins’ managerial consideration.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Jack Flaherty came over from the Detroit Tigersat the MLBtrade deadline and helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win their second World Series in five years in a five-game series win over the New York Yankees.

Flaherty stopped by “The Herd” on Friday to discuss how he was embraced by the Dodgers this season.

“I felt like it wasn’t a bunch of, ‘Hey, nice to meet you,'” Flaherty told host Colin Cowherd. “It was a bunch of, ‘Hey, man, good to see you.’ We all knew each other. … They brought me in, embraced me — and I felt like I just seamlessly fit in and was able to go out and have a good start in Oakland, and just go from there.”

Flaherty — who grew up in Burbank, California, which is located roughly 25 minutes from Dodger Stadium — went on to share what suiting up for the Dodgers meant to him on a personal level.

“You feel that any place they go, they’re the bigger, better team,” Flaherty said. “Matt Kemp told me, ‘It’s just different wearing the Dodger blue, and it’s different having ‘Dodgers’ across your chest.’ He said, ‘Guys just come here, and the level of their game just steps up, for whatever reason.’” 

Kemp, a two-time Gold Glover and three-time All-Star, played for the Dodgers from 2006-14, averaging 24 home runs, 83 RBIs and 22 stolen bases per season from 2008-14, while slashing .290/.350/.495.

Flaherty was a first-round draft pick by the St. Louis Cardinals and spent the first five-plus seasons of his MLB career with them (2018-23) before a midseason trade to the Baltimore Orioles in 2023. He then spent the first four months of the 2024 season with the Tigers, before being acquired by the Dodgers in July.

Flaherty posted a combined 3.17 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 194 strikeouts over 162.0 innings (28 starts) this season. The right-hander was then a mixed bag in the postseason, posting a combined 7.36 ERA in five starts.

Flaherty’s best postseason starts came in Game 1 of both the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets (seven shutout innings) and Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees (two earned runs over 5 1/3 innings). That said, he struggled in closeout games, surrendering eight earned runs in Game 5 of the NLCS and being removed from the mound in the second inning of Game 5 of the World Series, having surrendered four earned runs.

The 29-year-old has been held back by injuries over his MLB career, having made 30 regular-season starts just once (2019) and dealing with the combination of oblique, shoulder, hand, hip and back injuries.

While stars galore on the Dodgers (e.g. Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts), Shohei Ohtani dazzled the baseball world in a unique manner this season, posting the first 50-50 season (50 home runs, 50 stolen bases) in MLB history.

Flaherty provided the first moment when Ohtani amazed him.

“There was a ball that he hit against Colorado against Kyle Freeland,” Flaherty told Cowherd. “He took a pitch that was up and in, left-on-left, and he hit it out to left-center. And he hit it about 10 rows deep into left-center, which you don’t do as a left-handed hitter at all, and then we all went and watched exactly where the pitch was. Then we saw it was two balls above the zone, and he hit it out, and we were like, ‘That’s not normal.’

“And they had watched him all year and been with him, and everybody was still like, ‘Wow, that was incredible. … He’s as cool, calm and collected as they come.’”

Flaherty is in competition with the likes of left-handers Blake Snell and Max Fried and right-hander Corbin Burnes, among others, to be the No. 1 compensated starting pitcher in free agency this winter. This is the first time that Flaherty has hit the open market.

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THE HERD WITH COLIN COWHERD

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Aaron Boone will return for an eighth season as New York Yankees manager after the team exercised his 2025 option on Friday.

Boone has led the Yankees to a 603-429 record, three American League East titles and one pennant. New York reached the World Series this year for the first time since 2009, losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.

Boone agreed in October 2021 to a three-year contract that included a team option for 2025. General manager Brian Cashman said the deadline for the option is 10 days after the World Series.

“Aaron is a steadying presence in our clubhouse and possesses a profound ability to connect with and foster relationships with his players,” Cashman said in a statement. “Consistently exhibiting these skills in such a demanding and pressurized market is what makes him one of the game’s finest managers.”

Boone is the third Yankees manager to lead the team to the postseason in six of his first seven years after Casey Stengel and Joe Torre.

New York said Boone will discuss the decision during a news conference on Monday.

“I am grateful for the trust placed in me to lead this team,” Boone said in a statement. “It’s a responsibility — and an opportunity — that I will never take lightly.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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