The Miami Marlins have undergone a decent amount of coaching changes in the past two offseasons, most notably at manager, with Clayton McCullough taking over for the 2024 season.
With that, he has had the opportunity to build his own staff around him to some degree, and will continue to shape the franchise over the next few years.
One of the more notable departures that occurred recently was first base coach Tyler Smarslok leaving the franchise and heading to a division rival, as he took a job with the Washington Nationals. Smarslok had helped coach up a promising young infield this season, considering he was also an infield defense and baserunning specialist. With the Nationals, he will be a field coordinator, which makes sense given his skill set.
Shortly after his departure, the Marlins went to work trying to find their replacement option as a new first base coach. Thankfully, they were able to hire a very promising candidate only a few days later, who should be able to bring a similar level of coaching capability to the team, which is key, given how young the roster truly is at this point in time.
Who Did the Marlins Hire to Replace Tyler Smarslok?
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The replacement hire as a first base coach will be Craig Driver, as was reported by Craig Mish of SportsGrid. Driver most recently worked with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a catching and bullpen coach for 2024 and 2025, and prior to that had worked with the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies in various positions.
He’s also on the younger side of the coaching tree, as at only 37 years old, he has plenty of room to continue to grow and build upon his resume. He also has ties back to Clayton McCullough, as they both worked on the Dodgers staff in 2024, so there is some level of familiarity there.
From a story my colleague Todd Zolecki wrote in 2019 when Craig Driver went from the Phillies to the Cubs:
The Phillies’ front office and former manager Gabe Kapler said Driver’s work helped improve J.T. Realmuto’s pitch framing in 2019. #Marlins
— Christina De Nicola (@CDeNicola13) November 19, 2025
Currently, this makes three new coaches coming in under McCullough as of now, which is not an exceptional amount of turnover under a second-year manager, but also is not insignificant either. With a young core of players at the moment, keeping some level of consistency from year to year and giving them the opportunity to continue to work with their coaches may be beneficial long-term for their development.
But also, adding some new faces to the mix and providing them with the opportunity to learn from some of the best around the MLB is also a positive, and Driver should be able to help, given his experience.
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