By Dan Schlossberg

After a dose of Don Mattingly for seven years, the Miami Marlins have decided their next manager should be long on youth even if he lacks experience.

And There you go ! Skip Schumaker gets his first shot as a big league driver after years of serving as a bench coach for contenders.

A former infielder who never did much as a player, Schumaker has time on his side. He’s only 42 – not much older than some of his players.

But he’s also in a division with three behemoths, the pennant-winning Philadelphia Phillies and two teams that won 101 apiece but didn’t last long in postseason play.

Unless General Manager Kim Ng has suddenly found a buried Spanish treasure in South Florida, summer will still be long and hot. Wins and fan support will be hard to come by.

The 2022 Marlins went 69-93 despite the presence of Sandy Alcantara, likely the National League Cy Young Award winner; star second baseman Jazz Chisholm, Jr.; and 2021 World Series MVP Jorge Soler, who flopped after signing a three-year, $36 million contract.

Admittedly, Soler did not win this trophy by representing the fish. He belonged to the Braves last season, got hot when it mattered and got injured with a trophy, a major World Series chunk and that multi-year contract.

The Marlins made the extended playoffs after the virus-shortened 2020 season but haven’t qualified in a full campaign since 2003, when Jack McKeon’s club beat the Yankees in the World Series.

In fact, the team has never finished first despite two world championships. Such is the wild, wild world of wild-card baseball.

Without Washington (first in the war, first in the peace, but last in the National League), the Fish would have finished fifth in the five-team division.

Money talks.

The Marlins rank 23rd among 30 clubs with a payroll of $47,900,000 — just below Mets pitcher Max Scherzer’s annual salary.

Unsurprisingly, the Mets have the highest payroll, followed by the Phillies, Padres, Dodgers, Braves, Astros and Yankees in that order. All of them made the playoffs.

Schumaker apparently beat former Mets manager Luis Rojas, now Yankees coach, and fellow bench coaches Matt Quatraro (Rays) and Joe Espada (Astros). Most recently a bench coach for the Cardinals, Schumaker previously served San Diego as an “associate manager,” a term not taken lightly.

He inherits a team that has young and promising pitchers even beyond Alcantara, but a wobbly attack that rarely brings support from the pitching staff.

Schumaker learned a lot last year under another inexperienced young manager: Ollie Marmol in St. Louis. But the Cards had veterans like Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright, as well as All-Stars at the top of their game in Nolan Arenado and MVP favorite Paul Goldschmidt.

Unless they reverse course and start spending this winter, the Marlins likely won’t be returning to postseason play anytime soon.

Although their best players have already approved Schumaker’s selection, the bottom line is the win-lose ledger. It’s not going to be pretty.

Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of 40 books on baseball. He covers the World Series for forbes.com. Dan’s email is ballauthor@gmail.com.