Though the Cubs’ postseason run ended earlier than the team hoped, the loss in last night’s NL wild card game doesn’t seem like it will lead to a change in the dugout. The Cubs are expected to retain manager Joe Maddon through the 2019 season, ESPN.com’s Jesse Rogers reports.
Maddon is under contract through next year, in what will be the final season of the five-year, $25MM deal he signed to come to Chicago in October 2014. MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi reported earlier today, however, that a contract extension doesn’t appear to be coming in the near future, nor have Maddon’s representatives recently inquired about a new deal with Cubs management.
It’s hard to argue with Maddon’s track record since coming to Wrigleyville, as the Cubs have a 387-261 record and four postseason appearances in his four seasons as manager, highlighted by the curse-breaking 2016 World Series championship. Despite all this success, there have been whispers that Maddon and president of baseball operations Theo Epstein “are not always on the same page,” as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal phrased it earlier today. Some of Maddon’s in-game tactics led to some criticism from pundits and fans over the years, and Rosenthal’s subscription-only piece outlines some of the instances where Epstein could have found fault with Maddon’s decisions this year, such as possibly overusing Brandon Morrow.
While it seems as if Maddon could be entering the 2019 season as a “lame duck” manager, such a situation might not be unusual for either side. Maddon said last winter that he doesn’t broach the subject of contract extensions, as “I believe if we take care of our own business properly, that’s the kind of stuff that takes care of itself.” As Rosenthal noted, Epstein himself (plus GM Jed Hoyer and VP of scouting/player development Jason McLeod) was a lame duck for much of 2016, which was the last year of his initial five-year contract with the Cubs. It wasn’t until September of that year that extensions were announced for all three parties, so it perhaps wouldn’t be a surprise if Epstein and Cubs ownership waited until later in the 2019 season to approach Maddon about a new contract. Or, conversely, waiting could give both sides more time to decide if they want to continue their relationship.
Why wouldn’t they keep him? The only way is if Theo the great needs a scapegoat
Third here we come.
Third straight home loss in a big game scoring 1 run? You have to wait till next year for that sorry..
Oh please. At least have the class to wait til you actually win a series before you jump up and down like a 16 year old girl.
Lol
The Cubs have more playoff wins in 3 years than the Brewers have playoff games in their history. Enjoy your little run at the top. The Cubs won’t have to play 42 games in 43 days to end next season…
they ended those 42 days with 12 straight nights sleeping in their own beds and 9 straight playing on their own field
Go to work 42 out of 43 days. Sleep in your bed every night. Tell me how you feel after day 25…
Probably pretty damn good if my only job was to play baseball.
Hey inept-stop crying. It’s a long season for every team every year. Schedules balance out by game 162 and injuries are things that should be overcome.
The issue is losing game 162 and 163 at home.
Be graceful in victory as well as loss.
The Cubs have spent like a billion dollars on players since Maddon showed up. There’s no excuse for them not winning that division.
That falls almost exclusively, in my opinion, on Maddon. He has all the tools he needs.
Do you follow the team? Notice any injuries, and complete players busts?? It’s astounding that they were able to win as many games as they did, essentially being down 2 starting pitchers for most of the year.
Shouldn’t managers shoulder the majority of the blame on players being total busts? Just curious.
No
So kinda like how the Brewers were down Davies, Nelson and Knebel most of the season or the Cards were down Waino, Reyes and Wacha huh? Stop using injuries as an excuse. Every team hast them.
LOL. Is Maddon’s name on Jason Heyward’s contract?
Davies and Nelson are trash and Knebel was throwing like trash when he went on the DL. Him injuring himself probably saved you a few blown saves. That’s NOTHING like losing your best player and former MVP, your big free agent starting pitcher, and your closer who is actually performing like a closer.
How about maintaining one of opening day rotation and missing out by one game?
The Brewers won the division with a rotation whose “ace” would be the 6th best starter in Chicago. By your own account, the best pitchers the Brewers had (who were injured) were “trash”.
If anything, this speaks more to how much worse it looks that Joe Maddon couldn’t win that division.
Nelson was the Brewers Ace, and Davies probably was overperforming last year but he was still a big deal for a team with no starters
Why in the world would the manager be responsible for a player being a total bust? What are you smoking?
So the managers aren’t remotely responsible for how his players play?
Why even fire them?
By the way, injuries and players turning out to be busts are things every team has to work through.
That Joe Maddon needs ideally perfect conditions to captain the ship suggests, to me, he shouldn’t be out on the water.
a 3.49 ERA and a 126 ERA+ 10.2 k/9 is trash? ok.
Oh please. 1 of those starters was a #5 starter – EASILY replaceable by any team capable of developing ANY pitching. Let’s also stop acting like Chatwood’s control issues came out of nowhere. Was the control worse than expected? Sure. But it’s the EXACT reason nobody else offered as much money as the Cubs (another overpay).
“Davies and Nelson are trash and Knebel was throwing like trash when he went on the DL. Him injuring himself probably saved you a few blown saves. That’s NOTHING like losing your best player and former MVP, your big free agent starting pitcher, and your closer who is actually performing like a closer.”
Really want to play that game? Your “big free agent starting pitcher” was embarrassing himself before going down with “injury.” He had a -0.2 bWAR in 40 innings with a 4.95 ERA (and nearly matching FIP). Talk about an injury saving a team some games. You might not have even made the playoffs with a full year of Darvish.
Maybe Kneubel was hurting prior to going on the DL, leading to his poor numbers prior to hitting the DL? Just a thought.
If that’s the case…then why did it take 13 innings to beat a depleated cubs roster?
Nope. Positional coaches get that blame because they work with the players.
Wacha, Reyes, Martinez, and Wainwright—4 projected opening day starters. Starting position players Gyorko, Fowler, Pham, Ozuna, Wong, DeJong, and Yadi lost significant time. Busted closers in Holland and Gregorson. An injured Norris. Several other lesser players injured as well.
Did the Cardinals make the playoffs? No. S*** happens. Use the next man up philosophy and do your best.
If the Cubs had that many injuries—4 Starters, 6 position players, top 3 closers—well, they didn’t. The Cubs have had less time lost to their Starters of any major league team in the last three years combined.
Not saying they aren’t a good team and a good organization—they are. They have just been “luckier” than all the others. Be grateful.
The Brewers upped their game and it paid off. Congrats to them.
Sure rather have Jason Heyward’s name on a contract then Dexter Fowler.
I don’t know. It’s not the managers job to make the players hit. They had a pretty bad offense this year and a big reason for that was that their best hitter wasn’t healthy this year. And on top of that, all the “tools” that that money bought were pretty much on the DL or just plain sucked in Darvish, Morrow, and Chatwood.
I don’t think you need to place blame on anybody. They lost two games to two very good teams. Theres no harm in admitting that.
You’ll never hear about it from the Chicago sports media, but Theo likes to very carefully scapegoat others for his failures. When Morrow,the big money closer he signed in spite of a long history of injuries, went down, he said next year they’ll have to “hide Morrow’s shoes or he’ll talk his way into a game” when he’s pitched too much. Who exactly would he talk to when he talked his way into a game? Madden of course. It was Madden who didn’t have the sense to rest Morrow and it’s Madden’s fault Morrow went down. And Madden was to blame for Strop’s hamstring injury. He let him hit.
And he took Madden behind the woodshed over comments about his (Madden’s) not reading Russell’s wife’s essay on her abuse. Madden emerged with a whole new Theo approved attitude. Theo wants Madden gone. Theo generally gets what he wants.
You don’t know ANY of that.
Epstein wasn’t sure of his budget plans for 2019 but acknowledged the team had spent a lot of money in the recent past, including $126 million on Yu Darvish and $38 million on Tyler Chatwood last winter. Darvish was injured and Chatwood was unproductive.
“I’ll be the first to admit the offseason moves we made last year did not lead to immediate productivity on those contracts this year,” he said. “It put us in a little bit of a hole with our starting pitching. … We have to own that. I have to own that.”
Maddon is the only Cubs manager to guide the team to the postseason in four consecutive years, twice making it as a wild card and twice as a division winner.
Quoting the ESPN article cited
Or maybe the Brewers were just better? Is that possible? They had a great year. And it’s not over
They won 95 games in a division that featured 4 teams over .500. I think people need to get a little perspective on where the Cubs were with Rick Renteria or Lou Piniella or Dale Sveum or basically every other Cubs manager after Frank Chance.
Joe Maddon has a cabinet with prime rib.
Rick Renteria and Dale Sveum had expired spam.
Bad comparison.
So, that means you believe a 95 win season was a failure? You win one World Series in 110 years and all of a sudden Cubs fan are feeling as entitled and spoiled as Cardinals fans. Sad.
No. What is sad is that is took 13 innings from a team that a division title landed on…because of the depleted Cubs rotaion… and even with the Cubs struggling as badly as they were…the Cards still could not capitolize… and it took 13 innings for the”NLC” champs”…..to take the cubs out. If the Cubs are so overrated….then….what does they say about the Brewers…and the Cards?
When the stated goal is WS. And you wind up losing in the WC game, it’s a failure. It’s not about being spoiled. It’s about expectations. You meet them or you don’t. And the Cubs didn’t.
Are you referring to me?
I’m not calling the Cubs’ season a failure. I’m saying Joe Maddon isn’t a good manager.
The Yankees didn’t win their division. The Giants didn’t win their division. Yep, Bochy and Boone are idiots, too. It’s amazing that you would say he has all the tools. Mike Trout isn’t a Cub. Neither is Yelich. Nor Betts. Nor Kershaw. Nola. DeGrom. He doesn’t have all the tools. Ps—-when Maddon won the World Series I think a large portion of his roster (Russell, Baez, Contreras, Almora, Bryant, Hendricks, etc) were on their first contracts——maybe averaging $600,000 in salary……..any credit for that??? Any credit for winning 90+ games in Tampa with that salary total??? And the year before Maddon showed up the Cubs won exactly 73 games.
You all can enjoy the moment of the Cubs losing. That’s fine, troll all you want. Just adds to the joy that people are more worried about the Cubs more than some other team that you should be following.
They came out of a shortened All Star break with like 17 games in 16 days. And then finished the season playing 42 games in 43 days. Anyone that actually followed the team could see they ran out of gas thanks to an obnoxious second half schedule.
Fans of every team always hate the manager
I loathe some Snitker’s in-game decisions including bullpen use, but I don’t hate our manager. Love the team and family unit that has been built with young players since him being there.
Yep. Yankees won how many games? And they want Boone gone.
White Sox in 2020. Good bye again Ricky R
I have returned to say what I did back in March. The Brewers are the far superior team and they are your 2018 NL Central Division champions. Christian Yelich did become the next Robin Yount and was a solo hr away from the triple crown. I said the Cubs would lose in the Wild card game and that is exactly what happened. Everyone said I was a troll when I said this and talked about the advanced medical metric stats saying the Cubs infield would deal with a multitude of injuries. This also happened and these stats actually do exist and I will supply an explanation of them if asked.
All this said- this is not Joe Maddon’s fault. The Cubs made bad moves with Chatwood and Darvish. Hamels cured half of this but the truth is the 2017 Cubs were far superior to the 2018 version. Look at this Cub team and ask how far could they really have gone? Who can the Cubs hire that is better. The only comparable manager would be Joe Girardi and he is the opposite of Maddon. If that is what the Cubs want Girardi is there. Maddon has won a WS for the Cubs- the only guy to do that in 108 years. There is no candidate on his level at this point. Had the Cubs missed the playoffs it would be a different story and if anything he overachieved with this group.
“such as possibly overusing Brandon Morrow”. Joe didn’t sign him. Theo did. If there’s a problem with his use, maybe Theo should have thought of that before signing him.
Irrelevant comment. Ownership doesn’t give managers a list of every pitcher and how to use them through the season and dictate when they need time off. Some guys can handle more innings then others. The FO is just that and the manager is just that, they each have there duties and responsibilities Why the relationship there and trusting each other and being on the same page is crucial.
How is it irrelevant? If it’s so irrelevant, why would it be reported that Theo was displeased with Maddon’s use of Morrow? If there is an issue with a pitcher and how frequently or infrequently you can use them, and you still sign them anyways, that falls on the general manager, not the manager.
You’re saying that a manager misusing a player is the responsibility of the GM who aquired the player in the first place? Interesting take.
Does lead to an obvious followup question though. That is, what exactly is a Managers job if not to ensure they get the best results from the players they have available to them?
I get it. But ultimately the person responsible for signing the players is the GM. Why sign a guy and then say “don’t use him too much”? If use was a concern, maybe pivot to someone you can get more use out of.
A GM can only get the best available to him players at that time. Sometimes they come with limitations in their game; be if difficulty on Def, problems against LH/RHers, young/inexperienced so maybe can’t handle full playing time, or sometimes health concerns. It is the responsibility of a Manager to know what those limitations are and use the players accordingly to try and maximize the production of everyone he has – that is their number one responsibility even.
Everyone who knows anything about Morrow knows that he will get injured if he is over used. Despite that well known injury risk, Maddon used Morrow in 25 of the teams first 59 games, at which point he was hurt. Over 162 games, that is a pace of 69 appearances. 69 appearances would tie Morrow for top 20 in the NL. Do you think Morrow should be a top 20 appearance guy in the league? I can’t imagine you or anyone anywhere believes he should be, so that is an example of Maddon blatantly ignoring all know information and his most important responsibility.
Had he not over used him, Morrow may have been one of the best relievers in the game the whole season. His stats while still healthy support that. We will never know for sure though because Maddon did misuse him and it resulted in a likely unnecessary injury
I’d also say Morrow isn’t the only closer type the team aquired this season. Cishek was aquired knowing he could handle a ton of innings without the risk Morrow had. Maddon responded by having him pitch the second most games in the NL. 80 specifically, which is 15% more than he ever had pitched in his career. Maddon was likely over using him as well, and may have just lucked out that he did not meet the same injury fate Morrow did.
The Morrow snd Darvish signings were risky with their injury history. It didn’t work, so far but at least they tried. They’re 24 other teams that wish their teams cared as much as the Cubs.
Proof that you can’t always buy a title even though that has always been Epstein’s M.O.
But they did buy a title
if the red Sox win this year, they bought a title
Theo is not blameless, but if Joe looks to pursuit greener pastures with LA it would be a graceful exit.
The player talent is abundant with the Cubs current roster and it would only be a difficult atmosphere to strengthen that core under “lame duck” leadership.
Is ownership going to embrace the wait till next year philosophy again?
This article shouldn’t have ever needed to be printed. Given all of the injuries, and players not hitting when it counts, he should be up for manager of the year. Chili Davis definitely needs to go. Maddon should be extended.
Chili deserves some kind of award for coming up with the Javy approach. Every swing assume it will be off speed and when your late on the fast ball the metrix will appear you are trying to hit opposite field. That approach was award worthy in every instance except for a pitcher with a plus fastball or a team that scouted him with the naked eye and went against the metrix observing fastball middle in was a huge hole in swing.
Something that many may be overlooking is the departure of John Mallee (hitting coach/cheater extraordinaire). Seems very odd that so many Cub hitters would all have a real bad year (except Javy). Oh life was so much easier stealing signs and using the iWatch in the dugout!
Zo and Heyward also had huge rebounds from last year.
Heyward didn’t rebound at all. He had literally 1 good month, and then he turned back into a pumpkin. The same can be said for the Cubs newest legend, David Bote. Actually, that might be too generous to Bote; he only had about 2 good weeks, which led to dumb Cubs fans wanting to trade Bryant.
Cubs had to wait one hundred year (100) to win a championship! Joe Maddon came – resources or else – and won it! Sign Joe for another five (5) please…
108
Please.
A millipede would have won the WS in 2016 with that team.
In fact, the Cubs had to overcome multiple managerial mistakes in games 6 & 7 to win. They won in spite of Maddon, not because of him.
I would rather see the part ways and bring in someone new. I like Maddon but he seems to over manage at times. They were only down 1 run when he pulled Lester. That created the carousel of relievers to start before it was really needed. Lester was looking strong and should have pitched at the least 1 more inning. You have to ride your horse and hope the others step up and produce.
And the relievers didn’t give up a run until the 13th inning. How was that a bad move?
What an incorrect comment this is… Impressive.
This shows such a horrendous lack of knowledge of the game, I don’t even know where to start. His bullpen approach resulted in nearly 6 innings of scoreless relief. That literally only happens 2.3% of the time when a bullpen is brought in.
Cubs have no starters and are reliant on guys like Heyward who should be playing in AA somewhere. That’s on the GM.
The Cubs have no starters?
They have Jon Lester, Cole Hamels, Jose Quintana, and Kyle Hendricks. All of whom would still be the #1 pitcher on about 8-10 teams around the league.
all of them? lol….no
It was an elimination game—-they needed to score a run. Lester was looking string but you cannot give up outs when they are limited. You said it best they were only down one run. Tied or one up—-Lester stays in. Down, you have to hit for him.
If I were a Cubs fan, I’d have a bigger issue with him choosing Heyward over Schwarber in a clutch moment than I would with him taking Lester out early. That was prime Schwarbomb time.
Schwarber also struck out looking really awful on the swing for strike 3 in same game. Picking one lefty over another in that situation is a judgement call. Heyward hits and no one talks about it. Results bias. Heyward got the nod because they wanted his glove in the game.
“Things that were obvious for 100, Alex.”
The one interview that was telling with me was Joe & Theo recounting their pre-Game 7 meeting. Joe asked Theo how he saw the evening going and Theo replied with “he expects Hendricks to go 5 or 6.” Joe then said he saw Hendricks going 2-3 with Lester coming in to finish off the 5th and 6th.
That type of pre-planning is good… except that Joe then “forced” that plan. He has a tendency to make a pre-game plan (and they’re good, I’ll give him that) but he religiously sticks to it. If he says he’s gonna pull a starter before 3rd time through the order, he does it even if the starter is cruising. In both these playoff games, Q wasn’t tired yet, Lester was tired yet. He knows how bad the pen was, but he still trusted that beleaguered group over Q and Lester! Joe stuck with the plan even if it wasn’t needed.
That’s what worries me. I think Joe makes a plan and will stick to the plan no matter what and nothing short of a disaster start or miraculous start (e.g. no-hitter) is gonna make him change course.
I think last night he made the right decision. He needed to desperately get that offense going before it was too late and couldn’t afford to give away any outs, especially with how brutal their offense had been.
Not entirely true. Joes pregame plan for game 7 was to put Lester in at the start of an inning. He went against that plan and for no reason as Hendricks was dealing.
He went against it because it was Santana on base and even he wasn’t a threat to steal against Lester. Please recall that David Ross made an error on the first batter—Kipnis. If not for a missed strike call on Santana, Hendricks would have been out of the inning. And let’s understand how Hendricks was “dealing”. In the 19 batters he faced, he gave up seven line drives according to the official box score and record. In 31 starts during the season, he gave up over seven line drives only twice—and in many faced more than 19 batters. He was hit very hard—and the 6-1 lead disguised his real effectiveness that evening.
If they got rid of Joe after this season, it would be “Maddoning”
I gotta say, the Cubs did a phenomenal job this year. 95 wins with that many injuries? Quite impressive in my book. As a Cards fan, I really think they deserve that NLDS Spot more than the Rockies, but baseball is baseball, hard to determine what will happen.
They deserved exactly what they got! Nothing. Can’t wait to see a bunch of 2018 Central Wild Card Champion shirts.
2018 Central Wild Card Participant. PARTICIPANT.
With Joe Maddon’s “unique” style of managing, I can imagine the conflicts that arise between the two of them.
THEO: “Joe, we need to discuss the idea of using more of a shift in the series against Cincinnati.”
JOE: [brings a walrus in the clubhouse to increase morale]
THEO: “Umm, well, what do you think about using a closer-by-committee with Chavez and Cishek the rest of the season?”
JOE: [dresses like Waldo on the next road trip] “Find me first!”
THEO: “Got it. Thanks for your input Joe.”
JOE: [puts whoopie cushion on Theo’s chair]
Joe Maddon is a great camp counselor. He’s funny. The players buy in and love him.
But what happens when the canoe tips over in the lake? I’m not sure anyone should trust he’d know what to do, or that he’d make the right decision.
LOL
Hes not the problem anyways, the offense was pathetic and has been all September
They have to keep him one more year! Owe him $6 million for the last year of his contract, that will be it! His over managing his position players and his musical chairs batting orders are wearing thin on Theo and several other people, myself included!!
Meanwhile, Girardi is saying: WTF
Joe Joe is easily the most over-rated manager in the game. He’s not bad; nor is he especially good. He just gets into the newspapers because of his quirks.
Keep him, lose him, probably won’t make much difference. Tho one of the FEW managers who can ACTUALLY squeeze another 5-7 wins out of the roster became available today….worthy of some consideration…..but I don’t know if Bucky can deal with Theo’s ego…….
Joe Maddon is the Les Miles of Major League Baseball. His quirky antics will be fun, even if wildly unconventional. But he’ll continue to value unconventional methods, even if they aren’t effective.
He’s got more talent on his roster, more resources backing him, and more attention than most teams and managers can dream of, but he always gets in his own way.
How long do you let him shoot himself in the foot before we take the gun from him?
Go ahead and “fire” him (aka not renew contract)
If you they do ‘fire’ Maddon due to a playoff exit; expect Cubs’ 2020 season to end up pretty much like Nats’ 2018. What goes around comes around.
4 playoff appearances, in 4 years, and broke a 108 y.o curse.
Cubs fans should be so lucky to have a manager like Maddon. As a “not Cubs” fan, it’s obvious that their problem all year was lack of pitching and the fact that they’ve gutted their minor leagues chasing the title they got in 2016. If you want to fire someone because you can’t keep the winning sustained, it’s so obviously Epstein’s fault, not Maddon’s.
Either way, I’d fire neither, but stay the course and focus on rebuilding the minors for the next couple of years.
Pitching was not the problem. Hitting was. The rotation was elite in September, while the offense looked like a group of teenagers flailing garden hoses at baseballs.
Can someone explain with any semblance of intelligence why comments are disabled on the Addison Russell story, yet are always enabled for say, Jung Ho-Kang?
I think we’re all adult enough to have a conversation about Russell. Did he do it? I have no way of knowing, but silencing any rational discussion of the topic is 1930’s Germany-creepy.
I think it’s pretty obvious he did it now. I wasn’t ready to convict him based on he said she said. But i’ll day he did it. Don’t want to see him in s Cubs uniform again
Chapman got 30 games for firing off his gun during his domestic issues so Russell must have done some bad stuff!
Should we turn this into the Russell domestic comment board? How dare they suppress our 1st amendment right to free speech!
Websites have terms of service rules, while posting on the site.
That has nothing to do with 1st Amendment rights.
These boards arent capable of having adult conversations about issues like this.
Cub fans run this site, and they’re sensitive
Did you see the comments on the story when it first came up on the site?
The commenters were not, as you say, adult enough to carry on the conversation. I’d imagine future articles about domestic violence will also have the comments shut down.
Didn’t see it. Just saw “COMMENTS DISABLED”, so will take your word that the inmates took over the asylum.
And honestly, based on what I’ve seen around Twitter and other sites, it’s just a better move.
No one can have an adult conversation about it.
Cub fans run this site, and they’re sensitive.
David Ross for Cubs manager 2020
I’m watching Theo’s press conference right now——boy, if Chili is around at the end of the week, I’d be surprised. He has mentioned the Cubs leading the league in ground balls and walk rate and on base rate being down about a dozen times. 37-13 when scoring at least two runs in the second half. Talking a lot about erosion as the year went on—-slumps. Fascinating how someone can be so open after such a disappointing conclusion.
Give me a break.
Anyone calling for Maddon’s job at this point is just a clown who does not understand baseball. Joe managed the team to 95 wins, despite poor offensive production as well as injuries to key players. If any one person deserves blame for the Cubs’ poor performance the last few weeks, it’s Epstein. He had opportunities to add real talent to the roster, but chose analytics darlings like Heyward, Almora and Schwarber. It’s the most anemic hitting outfield in the MLB. He also failed to sign sn elite closer, something that is desperately needed on any serious contender. And Montgomery has no business starting an important game. He’s not a quality SP, and belongs in the pen where you can limit his innings to three or less.
However, when analytics darlings like Heyward, Almora, and Schwarber come in and do something, all we hear is about how much of a genius Maddon is for using them in that situation.
What does “do something” mean? BA w/RISP? SLG percentage? Learn baseball, then maybe you can have an intelligent discussion about it.
I’ll say this: Schwarber is not an everyday player, atleast not in the NL. Yet Epstein loves him. Why? All he does is strikeout or hit the occasional solo dinger. He’s a poor situational hitter and a marginal LF. He belongs at DH in the AL. And Almora… like, what the hell is he other than a replacement CF? He should be batting leadoff, and he should be stealing bases. He’s basically useless in any other scenario.
I think a friedman maddon reunion is looming. Theo wants to be “the guy” mentality hence why he left red sox because many felt he won the chip with his resources and not actually his skill as a gm. Maddon will be blamed and be replaced by a yes man. Maddon will go to dodgers and win 1/2 rings and further cement that he is a great coach.
Maddon is easily the most media-friendly and marketable manager in the game, which makes up vast majority of his mythos. His strength is his diet version of competitive psychology he dishes out in the clubhouse that helps keep everyone cohesive. As a tactician he’s mediocre on his best days and his groupies on the national sports broadcasts give him a lot of credit for the talent level of his players, fawning over his moves that worked while overlooking a disproportionately large body of puzzling moves that missed.
Talent level of his players? Guess you don’t watch the Cubs much. Virtually everyone in the Cubs lineup had a below average year at the plate. Baez was MVP-like, but Rizzo, Bryant, Contreras and the rest were terrible for most if not all the season. THEY STILL WON 95 GAMES, and almost won the division… AGAIN. The national media has nothing but antipathy for anything related to Chicago, and would love nothing more than to see him get fired. They want him out of Chicago because he’s a winner.
If Epstein is as smart as people thinks he is, he’ll bring Machado to Chicago and revamp the outfield via trade. Harper’s bat is not enough, and he’s not worth the $$$.
Rizzo was only terrible for the first couple weeks of the season. He had a .905 OPS over his last 580 plate appearances. Baez had a career year (likely unsustainable). Zobrist was SIGNIFICANTLY better than last year. Heyward was better but still sucked. Schwarber was better but still mediocre.
Bryant’s below average year still resulted in a mid-.800’s OPS. That may be below average for him, but it’s still better than most.
Russell has never been a good hitter (despite what Cubs fans tried to make you believe). Almora can still only hit in favorable matchups.
Contreras was really the only guy with any expectations that was terrible.
Cubs are walking close to the edge here.
You can take the depth they have as a good thing. What becomes an issue is finding at bats for everyone, and with their spending habits the last couple years they will most likely need to make a trade to add/improve.
There are guys losing value on the team (Schwarber, Happ, Russell). This isn’t to say value is lost entirely. It means the Cubs won’t get as big a return on those guys if they look to deal one or two of them. That means dipping into the farm system to address needs for 2019, depleting the systems even more.
As Maddon tries to come up with some kind of magic it’s simply not happening. The players on that field need to score more runs, period. We can pick at Maddon’s managerial decisions all we want – the Cubs went Washington Nationals in the playoffs and have taken another step backward.
Theo is 90% of the problem (give or take a percentage point). He would have run the franchise into the ground had he been GM/President of the A’s or Rays or any other small market team. Horrible free agent signing after horrible signing. Heyward, Darvish, Chatwood, Edwin Jackson, the list goes on. He traded DJ LeMahieu for Ian Stewart. He traded away the farm and soon to be All-Stars for mediocre pitchers. He would be long gone, booed out of any town not named NY, Boston, LA or Chicago. And somehow everyone is talking about firing the manager who has to deal with Theo’s mess. Joe over-manages in the playoffs but so does almost every other manager.
Free agent signings work or they don’t. Trades work or they don’t. Last year Justin Wilson needed to be better in Chicago than he was in Detroit to come close to competing with Dodgers. He was worse. They lost NLCS in 5.
This year if Hamels, Chavez or Murphy perform at even slightly lower levels than they did Cubs finish third behind Cards. Darvish and Chatwood were gambles. They busted this year. Could pay off next year.
Theo makes more good trades and acquisitions than bad and he spends less than the Yankees or Dodgers doing it. I’ll take him over anyone except maybe Cashman.
Brewers had an amazing year and Yellich was the best trade acquisition of the offseason for 2018. Will be near unanimous MVP. No embarrassment to come in second to them and I think they’ll go deep in playoffs.
Cubs will be back in force next year and the NL central will be a competitive division. Which is exactly what baseball wants and I want as a Cubs fan. Maddon and Theo beat any choices available for replacement.
I’m still trippin over Epstein trading Torres and pieces for less than half a season of Chapman… THEN LETTING HIM GO BACK TO THE YANKEES. Cubs fans forget about this because of the WS. The fact remains that move set them back YEARS. You don’t invest that much in a trade unless you are will to retain said player longterm.
Cubs’ fans who say this deserve to be in 111 y.o. drought
Luckily you’re a white sox fan, so I’ll say K-A-R-M-A
Most Cubs’ fans have common sense. Those who dwell on this trade, probably ones who wouldn’t be happy unless they won two, three if not four champion in 4 yrs
What kind of response is this? Are you trying to justify the trade, or deflect blame altogether. I brought it up because it speaks to the poor judgement and lack of vision demonstrated by Epstein and the Cubs organization. Or are you just a Yankee apologist/sympathizer. It seems they’ve had their way with the rest of the league via trades for a long time now. Pretty much proves rigging player movement is the only NY can remain competitive and relevant.
Its the kind of response that tells you how things are. Not what some White Sox fan hopes it would be.
Great response by Xabial
You invest in the trade to win the world series which they did idiot. Bringing him back is irrelevant. Should I put it in all capitals like you did clown? Would you get it then.
Great Guy and keeps the Club House loose,but a good tactician,Not!!!! At times the Cubs have despite him
Joe Maddon ruined the Cubs season by putting Justin Wilson into that tiebreaker game, and he did the same thing the year before with John Lackey. Who is the pitcher gonna be in 2019, that he just won’t lose faith in, no matter how much he sucks.