‘I’m not a finished product’: Skip Schumaker reflects on Year 1 as Marlins manager
First-year manager Skip Schumaker and his Miami Marlins won’t be playing the National League Division Series when it starts Saturday. The Marlins were knocked out a round earlier, getting swept by the Philadelphia Phillies in a best-of-3 wild card series.
But that doesn’t mean Schumaker won’t be watching as the Phillies and Atlanta Braves face off in their best-of-5 NLDS.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Schumaker said of the series.
And it provides Schumaker yet another opportunity to hone his managerial skills, even from a distance, as he already starts gearing up for his second season with the Marlins.
Schumaker doesn’t take any opportunity to grow and develop for granted. Just because the Marlins’ season is over doesn’t mean he can’t learn a thing or two by watching how those still in the playoffs are going about their job.
“I love learning to see what managers are doing and what did I miss,” Schumaker said. “I put myself in their situations. I’m constantly trying to figure out what would I do? Why would they do that? What am I missing? You’re texting your own coaches and other managers. I don’t want to do it from the couch. I’d rather be in the dugout doing it, but yeah, it’s a lot of fun for me to watch those games.”
Schumaker certainly did a quality job his first season as manager. He guided the Marlins to the playoffs and an 84-78 record, a 15-game improvement over the team’s 2022 performance. He instilled a winning culture inside the clubhouse and established a new standard for a franchise that has had a minimal track record for winning. This year was just the fourth time in 31 seasons that the Marlins made the playoffs and the first in a full season (excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season) since winning the World Series back in 2003.
But this year, Schumaker insists, is just a building block. He was learning as he went throughout the season about how to handle game situations, how to trust his staff and players — and his gut — and how to get the best out of everyone inside his dugout.
Just like he has high expectations for those he manages, his expectations for himself are equally as high.
“I’m not a finished product by any stretch of the imagination,” Schumaker said. “I have really good coaches around me that I got to learn from. I have a growth mindset. I’m always trying to figure out how to get better, how to get our guys better. My off days are spent going to different places and facilities trying to figure out how to get guys better. ... I could be here all day telling you about situations or how to get different guys better.”
He has support from his players, and center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. probably summed up Schumaker’s impact on the club the best.
“He came in and he showed us what it was like to win. None of us have really been through that, especially in this organization,” Chisholm said. “Knowing what it takes to win, knowing what to do to win and I feel like that’s what our staff did this year. They showed us how to win. They showed us how to play the game. And I feel like everybody’s excited to come back next year and do it again.”
Since the Marlins have to wait until next year for their next crack at the postseason, Schumaker will settle for the next best thing in the present: Watching the games at home with 16-year-old son Brody and 13-year-old daughter Presley.
“They’ll be second guessing what I’m talking about, just like my bench coach was second guessing me all year,” Schumaker said with a laugh.
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