The Miami Marlins wanted to hire a president of baseball operations over general manager Kim Ng despite her constructing a playoff team this year, leading to her departure from the organization Monday, sources told ESPN.
Ng, 54, was the highest-ranking woman in a major men’s North American professional sports front office. The Marlins hired her in November 2020 as general manager — the first female GM in MLB, the NFL, NBA or NHL — and her contract included a mutual option for 2024. In a statement, Marlins owner Bruce Sherman said the team exercised its end of the option but Ng declined hers.
Ng was offered a contract extension, sources told ESPN’s Buster Olney, but she turned it down.
The team’s desire to hire someone over Ng to run baseball operations surprised fellow executives around baseball, who lauded her work with the 2023 Marlins. Her deals for third baseman Jake Burger and first baseman Josh Bell at the trade deadline fortified a weak offense and helped push the Marlins to an 84-78 record and the final wild card slot in the National League.
Despire a -57 run differential, the largest ever for a playoff team, he…
