Meet Marlins bench coach Luis Urueta, whose connection to the team goes back nearly 25 years

Luis Urueta was connected to the Miami Marlins long before he joined Skip Schumaker’s staff as bench coach this season. Urueta had followed the Marlins growing up in Barranquilla, Colombia, but there was one specific moment from the team’s infancy that helped propel his desire to pursue a baseball career.

Oct. 26, 1997. Game 7 of the World Series. Eleventh inning.

Edgar Renteria, who shares the same hometown as Urueta, lofted the game-winning, walk-off single up the middle to score Craig Counsell and secure the Marlins’ first World Series title just five years into the team’s existence.

“I was a senior in high school,” Urueta, now 42, said. “That’s when things started getting serious [about baseball for me] and that’s exactly when Edgar had that winning base hit to win the World Series. Edgar is from my hometown. I didn’t know him at the time, but I remember exactly that day and then remember waiting for Edgar to come back home. The whole city was going to receive him with a whole parade.”

Fast forward a little more than 25 years, and here’s Urueta, still involved in baseball and now coaching for the team that jumpstarted his desire to get into the sport.

Did Urueta think about the full-circle moment when he joined Schumaker’s staff?

“Honestly, no,” said Urueta, the son of two teachers whose first sports love was soccer. “Obviously it’s something that you always envision. You like your team and you’re being a fan, but then there’s 29 other teams. Having the opportunity and how it played out with Skip coming over, I think sometimes God puts things into place. Coming here, to me, it’s been a blessing for me.”

Urueta’s role with the Marlins is simple yet complex. Most of his work is done behind the scenes and the exact work he does can vary by the day.

But ultimately, he is Schumaker’s right-hand man.

“Just covering Skip’s blind spots,” Urueta said. “He’s got his hands full with everything, so I try to fill in those gaps. ... I’m basically a complement of Skip and I think we do a great job. We think alike and I know when he misses something, I’ll be there to tell him what I think.”

Urueta has the resume and the pedigree to do just that. He has been around professional baseball for more than two decades, all with the Arizona Diamondbacks before joining the Marlins staff, and filled a variety of roles.

He spent five years as an MLB coach with Arizona, including two seasons as their bench coach from 2020-21 and as the Diamondback’s major league player development and instruction coordinator in 2022. His coaching career began in 2007 following three years as a first baseman in Arizona’s system, a fourth in the independent Northern League and three years overseas in the Italian Baseball League. He also served as manager of Team Colombia in the 2017 World Baseball Classic and has managerial experience in the Dominican Republic during the winter ball season.

“He holds the guys accountable,” Schumaker said. “He knows how to get the best version of those guys out of them. And so that was a big hire for me. I respect him. Always have. I think he’s going to be a big league manager one day. But for right now I have a really good bench coach. I had such a good relationship with Ollie Marmol last year [with the St. Louis Cardinals] and I was searching for that. That’s kind of what I wanted.”

The timing of Schumaker landing in Miami and reaching out to Urueta worked out just right. While Urueta was comfortable with his position with the Diamondbacks, he was looking forward to a “new challenge,” as he put it. He had immense respect for Schumaker from both his playing days and his early years as a coach — Schumaker’s coaching career began with the San Diego Padres, an NL West foe of Urueta’s Diamondbacks — and realized the two were like-minded. Joining his staff felt right even if it meant moving on from Arizona.

“I saw the challenge and I saw the room for growth,” Urueta said. “That made my decision easier.”

So did his familiarity with so many members of the Marlins’ coaching staff. Three others — pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr., bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda and first base/outfielders coach Jon Jay — had ties to the Diamondbacks. Cepeda and Urueta have connected on the winter ball trail as well. Hitting coach Brant Brown was part of the Los Angeles Dodgers staff for five years, so there was overlap there as well.

“I knew we had a great staff,” Urueta said.

And the team has produced so far. Miami enters its series with the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday with a 16-13 record, tied for second in the National League East a month into the season.

“We are preparing the way we have to prepare,” Urueta said. “It’s a tough division, but we are competing and we are winning series. That’s what we’ve got to keep doing.”

As for Urueta’s relationship with Renteria, the guy who helped solidify his decision to pursue baseball? The two met before Urueta’s pro ball career began and have forged a strong bond. He was Urueta’s bench coach during the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

“We created a great relationship,” Urueta said. “He’s been a friend for so many years ever since.”