With the Florida Marlins enduring one of the worst losing skids in franchise history, Edwin Rodriguez decided Sunday morning it was time to call it quits as Marlins manager.
Rodriguez, who replaced Fredi Gonzalez June 23 and became the first Puerto Rican-born manager in major league history, turned in his resignation Sunday morning about two hours before the last-place Marlins faced the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field.
Bench coach Brandon Hyde managed the team in Sunday's 2-1 loss. Larry Beinfest, team president of baseball operations, said the Marlins would immediately look for an interim manager to finish out the season.
Hyde and former Marlins manager Jack McKeon, who guided the team to the 2003 World Series title, are candidates for the interim job, according to sources. Nationals third base coach Bo Porter, a former Marlins third base coach, could be another candidate the Marlins consider according to ESPN.
"This has been extremely frustrating for everyone," Beinfest said. "I think everybody here knows exactly what's going on. The 17 out of 18 (losses), the way we've played. The way we've performed has been tough on everyone, especially (Rodriguez).
"This kind of caught us a little off guard. I know there's been a lot of speculation and everything, but this wasn't something on Father's Day and my son's 13th birthday that I thought was going to be happening today. We need to work. But we do want to get somebody in here quickly, so we can at least have some calm in the dugout and move forward."
The Marlins fell to 32-40 after losing Sunday's series finale with the Rays and are in the midst of one of the most stressful stretches in club history. They've dropped a season-high 10 in a row — one loss off the franchise record set in 1998 and are 1-18 this month.
Considering the team's rapid plunge, going from 10 games over .500 and a game out of first on May 26 (29-19) to eight games under .500 and 13 games out in a span of just over three weeks, Rodriguez's decision hardly came as a surprise.
Rodriguez, 50, was on thin ice even before the season began when he accepted a one-year offer to manage the team. It's also no secret that the Marlins would like a high-profile manager — possibly the White Sox Ozzie Guillen (a former Marlins assistant) — in place when they move into their new ballpark next season.
Rodriguez closed out the 2010 season by going 46-46. The Marlins started this season 29-19 after a sweep of the defending World Series champion Giants. But it's been all downhill since.
Through it all, Rodriguez kept his sense of humor. The Marlins' manager talked discussed ghost stories at the team's hotel Saturday and joked Friday about moving the calendar ahead to July in hopes of escaping an awful June.
"I am grateful for the opportunity the Marlins gave me to manage at this level," Rodriguez said in a statement released by the team.
"It was a very hard decision for me to make, with the positive way the organization is moving; a new ballpark next season and the young core of players that this team has. I can't say enough about the effort that this staff and these players have put into this season. I could tell that they continued to give 100 percent effort each and every day on the field. I wish this organization, staff and players nothing but success in their futures."
Asked if Rodriguez would have been fired had he not turned in his resignation, Beinfest said: "I can't tell you, look in the mirrorball and say (that he was going to get fired). I think when you've been going the way we've been going, I think everything is on the table. I'm probably on the table as well, and rightfully so. When you lose 17 of 18 and you swoon the way we've swooned I think everything is evaluated all the time.
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