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In a move that even seemed to take Florida Marlins’ president Larry Beinfest off guard, manager Edwin Rodriguez handed in his resignation on Sunday morning. Rodriguez steps down in the middle of a seven game slide by the Marlins. They have won one of 18 games in the month of June. Brandon Hyde, the team's bench coach, has been named the interim manager for the time being.

"This morning I offered my resignation to Larry Beinfest and the Marlins, and they accepted.” Rodriguez said in a statement. “I am grateful for the opportunity the Marlins gave me to manage at this level. It was a very hard decision for me to make, with the positive way the organization is moving; a new ballpark next season and the young core of players that this team has.”

The Marlins started this season off strong at 29-19 but have steadily lost all momentum after losing pitcher Josh Johnson, plummeting to the bottom of the NL East with a record of 32-40.

Losing Johnson is definitely one of the biggest factors in the Marlins’ struggles. Johnson was the backbone of this pitching corps. Not only is he the team’s best pitcher, but he also brings a huge intimidation factor to their games. Teams don’t want to go against Josh Johnson, plain and simple. Without Johnson, this team is playing like a shell of the team they were at the start of the season.

Rodriguez, the first Puerto Rican-born manager in MLB history, simply lost control of his team. What is worse is that he hadn’t even managed a full season with the Marlins yet, starting as the team’s manager on June 28^th of last year.

Regardless of the recent losing streak, the resignation comes as a surprise. The Marlins’ season isn’t over by any stretch of the mind and I just don’t understand Rodriguez’s decision on this one. The month of June has been tough but I think he had least owed it to the players to stick it out to see if they could turn around the season.

The Marlins’ organization is hoping that Brandon Hyde can bring back some congruency and get the team back on track. Luckily for him, they can’t do much worse.