Associate Director of the Texas Rangers and former San Diego Padres outfielder Will Venable and Cleveland Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz are finalists for the Marlins’ managerial opening, according to Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald.

The research appears to be focused on these two candidates.

Mish also mentioned in a separate article on

Miami Herald reporters also mentioned that both candidates would travel to South Florida this week for in-person interviews with Marlins president of baseball operations and owner Bruce Sherman.

Neither candidate has major league management experience. Venable might have already secured an MLB job if he hadn’t forgone consideration in previous offseasons.

Venable is also in the running for the Chicago White Sox managerial job and appears to be headed for a big league managerial job with one team or the other.

The former Padre, who made a strong impression during his Zoom interview with the Marlins, served as the Rangers’ associate manager for the past two seasons.

The 41-year-old previously worked as the first base coach for the Chicago Cubs in 2018 and 2019 before becoming the third base coach in 2020. After this season, he became the bench coach for the Boston Red Sox. On May 29, 2021, Venable got the opportunity to manage his first MLB game, replacing Alex Cora and leading the team to a 3–1 victory against the Marlins.

Albernaz, 41, has not played in the major leagues and has less coaching experience than Venable. He joined the Giants as a bullpen and catching coach during the 2019-20 offseason. After spending four seasons in San Francisco, he became a bench coach for first-year manager Stephen Vogt in Cleveland.

Although Albernaz has only one year of experience as a bench coach, he is familiar with Miami president of baseball operations Peter Bendix and assistant general manager Gabe Kapler. Albernaz previously played and coached in the Rays’ minor league system, while Bendix was general manager of Tampa Bay. His four seasons with the Giants also overlapped with Kapler’s time as manager.

If the decision truly comes down to Venable or Albernaz, the Marlins will soon choose a replacement for Skip Schumaker. However, an announcement might not happen in the coming days, as MLB generally discourages teams from making major announcements on days when playoff games are played.

UPDATE:

Venable was hired by the Chicago White Sox to be their next manager. The Marlins will have to look elsewhere.