Offishial News: With Venable off the market, Craig Albernaz ready to step to the plate

[Ely Sussman]

Today's news roundup also includes a lengthy blog post about how the Marlins have approached their rebuild differently under Peter Bendix.

On Tuesday out in the desert, OF Andrew Pintar went 1-for-3 with a walk and stolen base, extending his hit streak to 12 games. The Peoria Javelinas lost, 9-7.

In the Dominican Winter League, 1B Troy Johnston went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Vidal Bruján went 0-for-4 and continues to play exclusively in right field. Coming off the bench, Deyvison De Los Santos saw his first action at third base (he has otherwise been playing first base). RHP Elvis Alvarado threw a scoreless inning and topped out at 100 mph.

Here's more Marlins news and content:

🔷 Will Venable, who was a finalist for the Marlins managerial job according to the Miami Herald, has been hired by the White Sox instead. An announcement could be coming as soon as Thursday. The expectation is that the Marlins will reach a deal with Craig Albernaz, who had a leg up throughout the process given his history working with Peter Bendix and Gabe Kapler. I discussed the track records of both Venable and Albernaz and explained why I would've preferred Venable on a new episode of The Offishial Show.

🔷 Today happens to be Albernaz's birthday! He's turning 42, coincidentally the same age that Skip Schumaker was when he became Marlins skipper two years ago.

🔷 At the end of September, Walker Buehler was my favorite potential Marlins free agent target. However, after back-to-back scoreless starts in the NLCS and World Series, I concluded that he's now out of their price range. 

🔷 Reice Stark detailed why he believes the current Marlins rebuild should be more successful than the last one. Any of you can publish blogs directly on the Fish On First website too after setting up a free FOF account.

🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Yankees lived to fight another day. In their highest-scoring game of the 2024 postseason, they won 11-4 on a Dodgers bullpen day. There has not been a World Series sweep since 2012. The run differential between the teams is now even for the series even though the Dodgers remain in firm control, needing just one more victory to clinch the championship.

🔷 Today's MLB postseason schedule:

• Los Angeles Dodgers vs. New York Yankees, 8:08 p.m. ET (World Series Game 5)

 

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[One Regend]

Neither of them are a good choice IMO. But it's going to be a tank year or two, so the manager choice doesn't matter, so long as they establish a culture. Either way, both of them would have been replaced for a real manager if their player core develops.