![]() Two days later, Loria walked into Rodriguez’s office and delivered the news that the "interim" tag was gone and the Marlins were hiring him as the club’s full-time leader. “And I said, 'Yeah, I mean, I'm still an interim, you know, but yes,' that I would've been the first Puerto Rican manager. ![]() I turned back and he said, 'Hey, I didn't know you were the first Puerto Rican manager in the big leagues,'” Rodriguez recounted. On the flight to Puerto Rico, Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria approached Rodriguez. Just a few days after Rodriguez took over the Marlins, the team was scheduled to play a three-game series against the Mets in San Juan, Puerto Rico, minutes from Rodriguez's offseason home. Halfway through the 2010 campaign, Florida fired manager Fredi Gonzalez and called Rodriguez up to The Show to take his place on an interim basis. After managing the GCL Marlins from 2005-06, he jumped to Class A Greensboro for two seasons, and to Triple-A New Orleans in 2009. In 2004, then-Marlins vice president of player personnel Dan Jennings asked Rodriguez to join the organization as hitting coach for Double-A Carolina (now Pensacola). He spent the next three seasons as the skipper of Rookie Advanced Princeton before stepping aside for the 2003 season to take care of his children while his wife pursued her master’s degree. He got his first managerial gig in 1999 with Tampa Bay’s Class A Short Season affiliate at Hudson Valley and made an immediate impact by helming the Renegades to their first New York-Penn League title. I have a degree, I have a degree in accounting … but I started as a professional in 1980, and I've been doing that for 41 years, and the best part of all of those years is working in the Minor Leagues, developing players. Rodriguez cherished setting an MLB precedent, but what he’s appreciated the most over his career is the opportunity to shape and develop the future of the game through his work in the Minors. Most notably, he became the first Puerto Rico-born manager in Major League history when he was the Marlins' skipper from the middle of the 2010 season to the middle of the next year. ![]() Since moving into his first field staff role as a hitting coach for the Rays' Gulf Coast League squad in 1997, he's served in a variety of coaching positions at every level of the Minors, as well as in the Majors. Edwin Rodriguez, born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1960, has spent the bulk of his life elevating his native island’s profile in the sport while carving out a historic career for himself.įollowing the end of his playing days in the late 1980s, Rodriguez became a scout for the Minnesota Twins. With hundreds of players representing over two dozen countries in the Major and Minor Leagues, the game has evolved into a showcase of some of the world’s top athletic talent.īehind every step that’s made big league baseball a truly international game are trailblazers who’ve pushed for their own opportunities while opening the door for others to come behind them. There is perhaps no sport in the United States more culturally diverse than baseball. These individuals have inspired a new generation, currently writing their own legacy. As part of Hispanic Heritage Month, Lunes de Legacy, presented by Nationwide, shines a spotlight on Hispanic, Latino, Latina and Latinx stories throughout MiLB of those who have forged an impressive path and left a legacy in their wake.
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