What does future hold for Marlins with Bendix at the helm?

November 16th, 2023

This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola’s Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

On Monday, the Marlins introduced president of baseball operations Peter Bendix at loanDepot park.

It has been a whirlwind two weeks for Bendix, who had an in-person interview on Nov. 4, got hired the following day and then flew out to Arizona for the General Managers Meetings the day after. Once that event ended, Bendix took another flight to California to share his vision of the future with manager Skip Schumaker.

Here are some other things we learned on Monday:

Why hire a president of baseball operations?
"I've wanted a president of baseball operations for a long time," chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman said. "It is a very, very complex job. It is not just about the 26-man and the 40-man roster. If you don't get international signings right, if you don't get the amateur Draft right, if you don't get player development, if you don't get analytics right ... it is a complex job."

How does Bendix plan to fill out the front office if the Rays don't historically allow those leaving the organization to bring others with them?
"It's just learning what's needed in the first place, what the openings are, what [are] the skills of people [we] have in place, you know, that sort of thing," Bendix said. "And then I've worked in baseball for 15 years, so you develop connections, you develop people, you know where to ask those questions and try to find really good people around the game.

How long does it take to build sustainability?
"Ask me in 10 years," Bendix said. "I don't know. It's something where the goal is to consistently try to make long-term decisions, while also keeping one eye on the short-term. That's what we're going to be always doing. That's what I'm going to be doing this week when we have decisions. That's what I'm going to be doing in five years when we have decisions. And keeping one eye on the short-term, one eye on the long-term, I think, allows you to build that sustainable success."

Coming off a playoff appearance, what might the payroll look like?
"We talked a little bit about payroll, but I'm not a believer you just throw a number out there," Sherman said. "I think [Peter is] going to have to evaluate all of that. You saw Josh Bell opted in. You know we didn't do the qualifying offer for [Jorge] Soler. Great player. [Peter] had an opinion on everything, and our [assistant general managers] really made the decision there. So I see us trying to be sustainable. I want to be in the playoffs every year. It's tough, as you know, but I'll take two out of the last four years. It's a pretty good average."