Marlins part ways with Kim Ng; Should Red Sox target her for GM job?

Marlins part ways with Kim Ng; Should Red Sox target her for GM job? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

A very talented and highly respected front office executive is now a free agent, and the Boston Red Sox would be smart to target her for their vacant general manager job.

The Miami Marlins and Kim Ng have parted ways, the team announced Monday morning.

Kim Ng’s departure from the Marlins interesting in two ways for the Red Sox. Now she is a potential candidate to replace Chaim Bloom … and the Marlins join the Sox as a team looking for a head of baseball operations.

— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) October 16, 2023

Ng was in the final year of her contract with the Marlins, and it was set to expire soon. She was promoted by the Marlins to the general manager role in November of 2020, becoming the first woman to run a team in any of the four major North American sports leagues.

She did a great job in Miami. The Marlins went from 67 wins in 2021 to making the playoffs this year as a National League wild card team. They also have a good core of young players to build around for future success. Ng isn’t afraid of making bold trades, either, evidenced by the Luis Arraez/Pablo Lopez deal in January.

Ng’s experience also includes a run as assistant general manager of the New York Yankees under GM Brian Cashman in the late 1990s when the Bronx Bombers won the World Series in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000. So she knows what a winning organization looks like and how to sustain it.

One question is whether the Red Sox job even appeals to Ng. Potential candidates reportedly have some reservations about the role, including the lack of patience that ownership has for GMs. The last three averaged less than four years in the role, despite the fact that two of them won the World Series.

And now, as The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham notes in the post above, the Marlins need a new GM as well, and you could argue that job is similar in attractiveness to Boston’s right now based on Miami’s young MLB talent and overall roster. Expectations also are much lower in Miami than they are in Boston. The upside, of course, is much higher in Boston. And if Red Sox ownership commits to spending money, a quick turnaround could happen in Boston.

Ng is an excellent candidate, and the Red Sox should at the very least gauge her interest. The Red Sox tried an inexperienced exec in Chaim Bloom last time. A more experienced front office person such as Ng would be the right play this time around.