Marlins hitting coach Tino Martinez resigned today, amidst a budding scandal and controversy in South Florida. Martinez has been accused of verbally abusing the young Marlins hitters, and in at least one instance, becoming physical with a player.
Martinez acknowledges he angrily grabbed second base prospect/callup Derek Dietrich during a session in the batting cage this season. Martinez’s story is that he grabbed Dietrich by the shirt. However Dietrich has complained that he was grabbed by the throat.
Martinez stated that he had earlier offered to resign when the complaints from a few of the young hitters were received by the organization. However, team owner Jeffrey Loria wanted him to stay on the job. When the complaints by players became public in a story Sunday by the Miami Herald, Martinez decided that he should resign.
”I want to apologize to the Marlins organization for my behavior,” Martinez said. ”I have made some comments to certain players at certain times that I thought was more constructive criticism. Obviously, they didn’t feel that way, and it kind of backfired on me.”
“It has been building for a few days. I didn’t know this was going to come out publicly. When this came out, I thought it was the right thing to do.”
”I just thought with some young players you needed to be a little firmer and try to get them on the right track. I probably used some four-letter words. I thought I was doing the right thing. Obviously, I wasn’t.”
The Marlins rank last in the majors in a number of statistical categories including runs, home runs, batting average and slugging percentage. The pressure of improving a lineup with so many youngsters eventually got to Martinez.
First year Marlins manager Mike Redmond said that the organization was disappointed in the nature of Martinez’s departure.
”Coaching’s tough,” Redmond said. ”Going from a player to a coach is hard, and part of the grind is learning how to deal with different situations with different players and different personalities. All that stuff is a challenge. Some people can do it, and some people can’t.”
Martinez batted .271 with 339 home runs, over a 16 year Major League Career spent with the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He was part of four World Champion teams with the Yankees.
The Marlins have named John Pierson the interim hitting coach. He was coaching in the Marlins minor league system.
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