Kim Ng understands value of collaborative decision making as her Marlins GM tenure begins
As Kim Ng spoke from Marlins Park on Monday, ushering in a historic new chapter for the Miami Marlins, Major League Baseball and sports altogether, she looked at the familiar face to her left that gave her this opportunity in Derek Jeter.
She sat across the table from Jeter 20 years ago, Ng as the New York Yankees assistant general manager and Jeter as the star shortstop for a team that just won its third consecutive World Series, as they worked out a contract extension for Jeter that ultimately ended up being for 10 years and $189 million.
On Monday, the two were reunited in South Florida, now with Jeter as the CEO of the Miami Marlins and Ng as the club’s general manager — the first female to hold that role in Major League Baseball history.
“Derek embodies that word fearlessness,” Ng said. “I was privileged and fortunate enough to watch Derek for four years, every day, get out on that field. That was his approach to the game. He left it all out there, every single day. You saw that fearlessness out on that field. And now with this, you see it off the field.”
Now, the two will work hand-in-hand with the goal of bringing the long-term success they knew with the Yankees to South Florida and build on the team’s playoff run.
In her role with the Marlins, Ng will oversee the Marlins’ baseball operations but work in unison with Jeter, vice president of baseball operations and scouting Gary Denbo, assistant general managers Brian Chattin and Dan Greenlee, and the team’s scouting departments among others to make roster decisions.
Ng embraces that form of workflow.
“I’ve been in rooms where it’s been just players and they have a unique perspective and they can tell you a lot about character and how they approach their craft every single day, but I think sometimes you get too zoomed in, and you don’t necessarily see the entire picture,” Ng said. “I think that’s why you need different perspectives in the room. You need someone from the front office. You need someone from the scouting department, from player development, from analytics. You need all these people in the room to make good decisions. We all bring certain strengths and expertise to the table, and I think if you don’t use those resources, shame on you. In order to make good decisions, you need all the information.”
She also has a slew of familiar faces. In addition to Jeter, her four-year tenure as assistant general manager for the Yankees (1998-2001) overlapped with Denbo being Yankees’ assistant minor-league director in 2000 before becoming the team’s hitting coach in 2001. Her final four years of her decade in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ front office overlapped with the start of now-Marlins manager Don Mattingly’s tenure there, including his three years as hitting coach and first year as manager in 2011.
“The one thing I can tell you is that through all my conversations over the last couple of weeks, they’ve all just felt incredibly comfortable,” Ng said. “And I think that is a huge, huge factor in this. I also know that in having a history with these guys, there’s not as much of a learning curve for me, so I think it’s going to be a seamless transition and I can’t wait to get working.”
That work starts this week. The Marlins have until Friday to add a pair of top prospects in infielder Jose Devers and outfielder Jerar Encarnacion to their 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft. Dec. 2 is the deadline to tender contracts to players, including the nine players Miami have set to go to arbitration.
And then there’s the intrigue of how the Marlins attack the free agent market and how Ng is able to adapt her approach from her tenures with the Yankees and Dodgers — both teams who are annually among MLB’s highest payrolls — to the Marlins.
“Being in a smaller market now, the player development system is just so incredibly important as well as your acquisition modes, whether it’s domestic or international,” Ng said. “Looking at this system, it’s rated one of the top systems in baseball right now. ... I think that’s how you get to this self-sustaining model that you need over an elongated period of time.”
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