The Miami Marlins are having a rough season and it appears their hitting coach Tino Martinez isn't making it any easier on the team.
According to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald, Martinez allegedly choked a player--rookie second baseman Derek Dietrich--a few months back and the team was notified by the player's agent. Dietrich was demoted to the minors last week.
Also in Spencer's report, another player speaking anonymously confirmed at the very least that Martinez has been verbally abusive to the players he coached since spring training and others have complained to manager Mike Redmond about Martinez's behavior.
Martinez was ready to resign but Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, who hand-picked Martinez for the job, had stopped that from happening at first, but now it appears Martinez has resigned, per Spencer.
#marlins hitting coach tino Martinez has resigned
— clarkspencer (@clarkspencer) July 28, 2013
Loria had to see that this is an extremely negative thing both from a media relations and player development standpoint. Keeping Martinez would have shed a very negative light on the organization as a whole if this behavior was allowed to continue.
Granted, these are grown men Martinez is yelling at and abusing, but this behavior is still totally unacceptable no matter how you slice it--and that's especially true living in the uber-sensitive society we live in today.
Coming from a long-time Yankee fan, Martinez's behavior is surprising to say the least. He has always seemed like a very mild-mannered person, but after showing his true colors with the Marlins, it's doubtful Martinez will have an easy time getting another job in the MLB for the foreseeable future.
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