BALTIMORE — Fredi Gonzalez was fired yesterday as manager of the Marlins, whose search for a full-time successor began with a phone call to Bobby Valentine.
Gonzalez was dismissed with Florida at 34-36 and in fourth place in the NL East, 7½ games behind first-place Atlanta. Immediately after firing Gonzalez, the Marlins began searching for his successor.
“Bobby Valentine is a candidate for this position. He was spoken to by me today,” club president David Samson said. “I told him Fredi had been dismissed, and that we were interested in speaking with him in the very near future about our opening.”
Edwin Rodriguez, who has spent the past 1½ seasons as manager of Triple-A New Orleans, took over as manager on an interim basis. Samson also said the list of candidates includes Rodriguez.
Valentine has a reputation as a disciplinarian. He led the Mets to the World Series in 2000, where they lost to the Yankees. Valentine reached the postseason twice in 15 years with the Rangers and Mets and has a career record of 1,117-1,072.
In 2009, Valentine ended a six-year run as manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan’s Pacific League. He managed the Rangers when Jeffrey Loria owned that organization’s Triple-A team in Oklahoma in 1989-92.
Valentine currently is working for ESPN.
“This team seems to be stuck in neutral, and our competitors are on the accelerator,” president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest said, hours before the Marlins faced the Orioles. “We were looking for a leadership change to hopefully get us on the accelerator.”
Also fired were bench coach Carlos Tosca and hitting coach Jim Presley. They were replaced on an interim basis by Brandon Hyde and John Mallee.
In three-plus seasons as the Marlins’ manager, Gonzalez was 276-279.
Gonzalez did not immediately return a phone call or a text message seeking comment.