# First female GM in MLB - Kim Ng, Miami Marlins
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528
**Category:** The Game Room
**Tags:** baseball-mlb
**Created:** [November 13, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528 "2020-11-13T19:45:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/1 "2020-11-13T19:45:25Z")
> **[Miami Marlins hire Kim Ng as general manager. She's the first woman and first...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/13/us/kim-ng-miami-marlins-gm-mlb-spt-trnd/index.html)**
>
> The Miami Marlins have hired Kim Ng to be the team's new general manager, making her the first female GM and first Asian American GM in Major League Baseball history.
This is a fairly big “first” in MLB, and for all of the major US sports leagues.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2020, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/2 "2020-11-13T20:07:20Z")
I remember when she worked for the Yankees and I think Torre poached her over to the Dodgers. Good for her.
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### Author:  [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2020, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/3 "2020-11-13T21:07:34Z")
Finally. I was hoping the Astros would consider her, in the wake of the Luhnow and cheating debacle.
She’s supposed to be good and knowledgeable. We’ll see. We’ll _really_ see if ownership wants to spend.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2020, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/4 "2020-11-13T22:23:57Z")
The article says her immediately prior position was as VP of baseball ops for MLB itself. That might have a lot more to do with the biz than it does to do with players, but it’s still darn impressive. Color me optimistic.
As a local here in MIA I have to say I’m not optimistic anybody can make baseball popular even if management did deliver winning teams. Which of course they generally have not.
COVIDBall may be a different enough sport from MoneyBall and from SABRBall that there’s a window of opportunity to really shuffle the deck on which teams are going places and which are not. We shall see.
I do predict that she’ll be a hero or a (scape)goat within 2 years. Go Kim!
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### Author:  [@mtnmatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtnmatt)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2020, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/5 "2020-11-13T22:34:00Z")
The Marlins also have the highest-ranking female exec in pro sports, SVP Caroline O’Connor. It pains me to say it but well done, Jeter.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2020, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/6 "2020-11-13T22:54:41Z")
> “Kim’s appointment makes history in all of professional sports …” Commissioner of Baseball [Robert Manfred Jr.](http://www.cnn.com/2020/07/30/us/covid-19-outbreak-sports-lessons-learned/index.html) said in a statement.
No, that was in Portland, Oregon, 46 years ago, when the minor league Mavericks hired the first female GM in professional baseball.
[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FaNYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nPgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6714%2C4129317](https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FaNYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nPgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6714%2C4129317)
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2023, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/7 "2023-10-03T18:53:53Z")
So far, so good.
> **[The Miami Marlins' Kim Ng is the first female GM to lead an MLB team to the...](https://www.npr.org/2023/10/03/1203309016/kim-ng-miami-marlins-first-woman-playoffs-mlb)**
>
> Ng made history when she took the top executive job in Miami back in 2020. Now, just three years later, she has steered the Marlins to their best winning percentage since 2009.
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2023, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/8 "2023-10-05T12:56:22Z")
Yup, she’s done a remarkable job. The Marlins’ primary talent the last couple of years has been young pitching, which is probably the hardest River to navigate for a GM. The Marlins have shown that the adage TINSTAAPP (There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect) is true - as soon as a pitcher showed considerable promise, they seem to get injured just as quickly. But Ng has skillfully promoted players through the minors at just the right times, and we’re seeing the results.
I can only image how good the team would be with a healthy Alcantara or Meyer on the squad.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2023, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/9 "2023-10-06T21:05:07Z")
“First female GM to lead a team to the playoffs” is a bit redundant, it’s just a repeat of the same story. She’s still the only female GM ever. I’m not even aware of a likely second female GM employed by anyone.
The Fish may have been a bit lucky to make the playoffs but they’re a very young team, and will likely get better still. Interestingly, the Ng moves that generally did NOT work out were when she did bring in older veterans to try to fill gaps; Yuli Gurriel, Joey Wendle, Jake Stallings, Juan Segura, all flops in Miami. All the value came from the young talent they’ve developed or the fantastic Luis Arraez acquisition, and Arraez is only 26.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2023, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/10 "2023-10-07T00:49:46Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> She’s still the only female GM ever.
In the Majors, anyway. Scroll up a bit for the first ever.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2023, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/11 "2023-10-07T05:12:22Z")
Yes, I did see that, but the thread is about the first female GM in MLB, not some little amateur league.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2023, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/12 "2023-10-07T16:19:48Z")
You know why MLB pretends that never happened? MLB did not like this upstart independent team consistently showing up their farm teams. At the end of the their last season in existence, they lost the championship by such a narrow margin that MLB bought out Bing Russell and put an expansion farm team there.
In short, they made Kurt’s dad an offer he couldn’t refuse.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2023, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/13 "2023-10-16T14:31:26Z")
She’s gone.
> **[GM Kim Ng won't return to Marlins in 2024](https://theathletic.com/4966715/2023/10/16/kim-ng-marlins-leaving/)**
>
> Ng became the first female GM to lead a major-league team to the postseason earlier this month.
> - [Marlins](https://theathletic.com/mlb/team/marlins/) chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman announced that although the club exercised Ng’s team option to return for the 2024 season, she declined.
>
> - Ng [told _The Athletic_](https://twitter.com/TylerKepner/status/1713913280144548114) that she and Sherman discussed his plan to reshape the Marlins’ baseball operations department last week. “In our discussions, it became apparent that we were not completely aligned on what that should look like and I felt it best to step away,” Ng said.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2023, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/14 "2023-10-16T14:48:36Z")
Very diplomatic on both sides. Which is to say mush-mouthed and giving us little to go on.
As the article suggests, one thought is Ng wanted a raise and longer contract and ownership didn’t.
My counter-interpretation is that ownership wanted to monetize the playoff appearance by selling most / all of their good players while they’re hot commodities then start over building a new team with rookies and prospects. Meanwhile Ng wanted to win more next year with the crew she had.
A third interpretation is akin to my second, but the disagreeable planned turnover was/will be in the coaching / managering ranks. And in this case it’s unclear whether Ng wanted change and ownership did not, or vice versa.
It’ll be verrrry interesting to see if Ng comes out of this with a good new job elsewhere, or with a “pariah” sign around her neck. I hope the former, but history has shown it’s hard to be too cynical about the sports biz, and doubly so where non-white-non-males are involved.
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2023, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/15 "2023-10-16T15:10:19Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> My counter-interpretation is that ownership wanted to monetize the playoff appearance by selling most / all of their good players while they’re hot commodities then start over building a new team with rookies and prospects.
The Marlins ARE mostly rookies and prospects. There are 7 players on the roster for 2024 with a non-arbitration or rookie contract.
I agree with the general consensus - Ng wanted a long term deal/extension, and wasn’t offered one.
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2023, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/16 "2023-10-16T19:37:47Z")
Yup. Looks like Marlins ownership hired a new president of baseball operations, which is what you do when you want to effectively demote the GM without firing them, and then they denied her contract extension request:
> **[Why Kim Ng left the Marlins — and what could come next](https://theathletic.com/4967845/2023/10/16/kim-ng-marlins-departure-gm/)**
>
> Ng, the first female GM in baseball history, as well as the first GM of East Asian descent, will not return to the Marlins next season.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2023, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/17 "2023-10-16T20:02:17Z")
> [@Munch](#):
>
> Yup. Looks like Marlins ownership hired a new president of baseball operations, which is what you do when you want to effectively demote the GM without firing them, and then they denied her contract extension request:
“You finally got us in to a real playoffs. You’re demoted.” Yeah, I’d quit too.
What a disaster of an organization.
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### Author:  [@ThatCanadianGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThatCanadianGuy)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2023, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/18 "2023-10-18T16:47:55Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> My counter-interpretation is that ownership wanted to monetize the playoff appearance by selling most / all of their good players while they’re hot commodities then start over building a new team with rookies and prospects. Meanwhile Ng wanted to win more next year with the crew she had.
Given the Marlins history, would not be surprised if that’s the case.
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### Author:  [@ThatCanadianGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThatCanadianGuy)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2023, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/19 "2023-10-18T16:50:12Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> It’ll be verrrry interesting to see if Ng comes out of this with a good new job elsewhere, or with a “pariah” sign around her neck. I hope the former, but history has shown it’s hard to be too cynical about the sports biz, and doubly so where non-white-non-males are involved.
I hope the former as well but I get the feeling we’ll never hear of her again as far as MLB is concerned. I hope I’m wrong so the questions is, which is the team most likely to hire her?
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2023, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-female-gm-in-mlb-kim-ng-miami-marlins/925528/20 "2023-10-18T16:58:48Z")
One of the suggestions in the Athletic article is for the White Sox to hire her as a VP of Operations. They have a brand new GM, former mediocre Royals 2B Chris Getz, who has zero prior experience and may be in a bit over his skis.
The Sox’s organizational depth isn’t nearly as deep as the Marlins is/has been under Ng, so there aren’t going to be results as quickly as she saw in Miami. But it’s a team that has shown it has deep pockets. At the very least, there are a number of aspects that the team needs an immediate steady hand with.
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