To say Cubs manager Joe Maddon’s stint with the franchise has been a success would be a massive understatement. Since the Cubs hired the former Tampa Bay skipper in November 2014, they’ve amassed a sterling regular-season record of 469-335 and made the playoffs four consecutive times. Undoubtedly, though, the greatest triumph during Maddon’s days atop the Cubs’ dugout has been the World Series title they won in 2016, ending a 108-year drought for the North Siders. It’s likely Maddon will always be a beloved Cubs figure as a result of that victory and the rest of his accomplishments with the organization, but after a half-decade, the 65-year-old’s tenure may be winding down.
Although he’s in the last year of his contract, Maddon said just last month that he expects to manage the Cubs again in 2020. However, that was before a late-season collapse by Chicago, which led the NL Central race by two games over Milwaukee at the time of Maddon’s comments. Now, not only are the Cubs out of contention in the division with a week left in the season, but they’re very likely to miss the playoffs for the first time during the Maddon era. At 82-74, they’re seven games back of the archrival Cardinals in the Central and four behind the Brewers and Nationals in the wild-card hunt. With the season on the line, the Cubs have dropped six straight games, all but knocking themselves out of the race in the process.
Thanks in large part to their recent skid, the Cubs have gone a dismal 9-12 in September. It would surely be unfair to solely blame Maddon for that – they’ve dealt with injuries to the likes of Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Cole Hamels, after all, and big-money closer Craig Kimbrel can’t seem to buy a save – but the Cubs could nonetheless elect to go in a different direction at manager. Barring a last-second surge (plus a horrible finish for the Brewers or Nats), president of baseball operations Theo Epstein at least figures to seriously make over the Cubs’ roster during the offseason. Do you expect a change in the dugout to accompany that?
(Poll link for app users)
Let’s hope not.
How different this string would have been if his mismanagement of the pitching in the World Series led to the Cubs losing the World Series.
Cubs hold the 108 year drought record. They’re shooting to break that record. They have a shot. Fire Maddon and go for it.
Say it ain’t so Joe!?!
He will be the Mets manager next year
Lord yes please!!! Or at the least Joe Girardi. Just not Mickey “can’t manage” Callaway.
I think Joe’s smart enough to stay away from the Mets.
I am a Cubs fan. Went through one of the large droughts where a Wild Card spot was HUGE only to get swept by the Dodgers.
We’ve made the playoffs 4 years straight. Even won the World Series. Now we want to run him out of the city so quick. We have been spoiled. It’s not the managers fault. He has made some questionable decisions but at the end of the day, he isn’t playing on the field. He is a good man and a good manager. He should stay.
He bats Rizzo leadoff… come on.
Rizzo tears it up when he leads off, and the Cubs don’t have a true leadoff hitter. Who’s fault is that? I’ll give you a hint….begins with a “T” and ends in “heo.”
Speaking of . .. I voted No on the poll, but wish it had had an “unsure” or “it depends” option, given the Theo to Boston rumors which he’s denying.
That said, maybe our host needs to do a poll about THAT.
GOAT.
I think Bryant would be ideal for leadoff too. They have plenty of guys that can drive in runs 2 thru 6 in the batting order.
I agree with you in full. I’m not saying that Maddon is as great of a manager as some used to think. I am just saying he is no where near the biggest problem. Theo Epstein loves to run his teams like the owners have a hole in their pocket. Injury history? No problem. Under performed for most of your career? No problem. Just had your first good year before hitting free agency? No problem. Full no trade clause? No problem. 6,7,8 year contract? No problem. Gonna be old as heck by the time that contract ends? No problem. It’s gonna cost the owners well over $100 million just to sign you? No problem. Maddon was handed a roster with Lester on the steep downside of his career this year. Not a bad contract but the Cubs are just starting the worst part of it. The Cole Hamels extension was dumb. Over $20 mill per on a guy that old? Theo way overpaid Yu Darvish for what he was and then he underperformed and stayed injured a lot of the time on top of that. Paying $184 million for a guy that (outside of his rookie and contract years) has underperformed his entire career due to a well known back injury he acquired in high school (Jason Heyward) was about the most idiotic thing he could have done. The only teams that had ever coached him before that knew to stay away because of his chronic back problems. It was shocking that he was even able to hit .291 his year in St. Louis but every team knew he couldn’t keep it up. Not to mention the Kimbrel signing. The Cubs are paying him $43 million and he still “can’t buy a save” or even keep his ERA below 5.68 for that matter. Maddon was given a team that Theo’s decisions insured would have over $90 million worth of bad contracts on it this year alone. That’s what he has to work with. He also insured that with the exception of Hamels, those contracts will be on the Cubs payroll for years after this.
Overpaid for darvish has been one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball the second half of the season
Darvish might be net positive value right now.
He finally remembered how to pitch during the second half of a season the Cubs won’t make the playoffs anyway? That’s good to know. The Cubs only paid him $42 million over the past 2 years so he could go 7-11 over 219 innings. That’s only $6 million per win or $191,000 per inning pitched. At that rate they can buy a 20 game winner for $120 million a year. I don’t see how anyone can say that’s net positive. On the bright side the Cubs ONLY owe him $84 million over the next 4 years. He’s only on pace to be about 12 games under .500 for the Cubs during that time. I guess paying a guy $42 million to lose 4 more games then he wins make sense. Paying him $126 million is just flat out genius.
Can I be your drummer? Where do you want the rimshots?
They won 97 games and were massive favorites over the measley 84 win Dodgers. That sweep was pretty bad
When did the dodgers sweep them in 2015 the beat the pirates beat the cardinals were swept by the Mets …2016 won it all …2017 beat the bats lost to the dodgers 4-1 last year were 1 and done
Baseball existed before 2015
amk3510
Not for Cub fans.
Most Cubs fans don’t know that.
probably merging 2015 and 2017 in their minds lol
DBacks before that. From ‘03-‘08, after the 3-1 lead over the Marlins, Cubs lost 9 straight playoff games. Maybe my fellow Cubs fans have a PTSD blackout.
I agree its not his fault – certainly nowhere near ONLY his fault. I think the question is if he can still guide this specific group of players to being their best. There’s time when someone who definitely has the skills to manage a major league team might not be the right choice, simply because the players need a change. But you’d have to be in the clubhouse to know if that’s the case and I wouldnt look to make assumptions.
He’s a good manager and, since he’s clearly expressed a desire to return, cutting ties could risk jeopardizing the team further if they were to hire someone who’s not really a good fit. Or, if they’re lucky and pick the right guy, you could see something akin to the Yankees dropping Girardi and flourishing under Aaron Boone.
The answer to whether they should replace him is simple. Can they get someone better? No. Question answered.
Joe is basically a free agent. He’ll probably get a pay cut but he’ll find a managerial job easily.
Dodgers also fire Dave Roberts for blowing a third straight World Series. Joe immediately gets Dodgers manager spot and wins World Series in 2020 facing in the NLCS against his former team.
And then nemolee.exe turned off MLB the show franchise mode
Nemolee, most of us in LA could live with that!
I love Joe, I think he’s a great manager but I think it’s time to get a new voice in the locker room. I’m sure he’ll be successful wherever he goes
John I was thinking the same thing. Sometimes no matter how good a manager is, it might benefit a team just to have a different personality in the clubhouse, to hear things put a different way. (I’m assuming that the new voice is also a good manager in this hypothetical scenario.) I’m a musician and we musicians always visit different teachers, voice coaches, summer intensives, etc for training…to hear other sides of the same multi faceted diamond.
The Padres would be a great fit for him.
Agree 100%
Did they run. out of hitting/pitching coaches to blame?
You think Theo is going to fire himself?
i’d like to see Joe back with the Angels.
Your Angels are more than 30 games out of 1st…… That clown organization needs a hell of a lot more than a new manager.
How bout the buffalo lambs?
Are you and Yadi still fired up, Matheny boy?
Unfortunately he will be gone. But he should not blamed for last season or this season. He didn’t not sign Chatwood, Morrow,Kimbrel,Heyward, Darvish, and resign Hamels. Theo’s record with siging or trading for closer in not great. Should we forget about Eric Gange trade he was advised not to make.
See ya
I personally think this could be multi faceted. Joe Maddon makes 6 million a year which is a premium for managers now a days. Thats one way to cut the payroll a bit when ownership is saying there’s no more. If he stays it’ll be with a pay cut I’ll bet.
Joe Maddon is a good clubhouse manager but the Cubs defense and base-running were awful by almost every measure this year and that falls on the coaching staff.
Managers salary is not counted on payroll for the luxury tax
Yeah that’s true but that’s still 6 million dollars they can cut when even the best managers now are making about 2 million. I mean payroll in terms of total expenditures.
Joe Maddon has always been a bad manager. I live in Florida and watched him every day with the Rays. He was awful back then. People get confused and mistake his weirdness for brilliance. He’s just a moron who morons differently from other morons.
Hey reflect how many pennants have the Rays won without Maddon? Zero! But Maddon won a pennant with the Rays
Bad, awful, moronic comment,.Call me weird though.
Reflect, exactly correct. Nobody is mistaking Brenly, Yost, Farrell as great managers. Yet, they all won WS as managers. Players win and lose games. Managers are there to just lose more with dumb decisions…like pitching a guy in a NLCS in a high leverage situation when he hadn’t appeared in a game for 20 days. Insert Wacha and Matheny here.
Maddon will be fired and the Cubs will regret it when they have a far inferior manager next year. It’s not Maddon’s fault that the front office put together that awful pitching staff and the lineup can’t hit when it matters
Is it the front offices fault he pitched Chapman two innings in game 6 up 5 runs…and Chapman almost blew it in game 7….is it the front offices fault arrietta wade davis and Arnold is Chapman all said they would rather retire then pitch for maddon again
Last time I checked the Cubs still won that World Series. Also Arrietta and Davis have been terrible since leaving the Cubs and they didn’t have the money to keep Chapman the front office gave Heyward that horrendous contract. People like you seem to forget that the Cubs weren’t very successful before Maddon
Not one of them said that.
Robertn why do you make up bs? Not one player said that
They all said that? Find me the EXACT quotes. I’ll wait. lol.
The only players I can recall that had gripes with Maddon were Hammel and Montero.
Robert, “they all said they would rather retire” did they?
It doesn’t really matter at this point if Maddon is a good manager or not. He’s lost the ability to motivate his team and get the best out of them, so his time is up in Chicago. It’s not that uncommon of a thing in baseball, it even happens to the good ones.
Comments like these are the most uniformed and laughable comments, for anyone that has actually consistently watched this team and observed what has gone on with that front office. Sounds like a canned line right from Theo’s public relations team.
So four straight one-run losses, at home, three of the four blown on the ninth or later, to the division rival you need to beat to stay in the division race, is getting the most out of your players?
Like I said, he might be a good manager but it doesn’t matter. The results on the field speak for themselves, the players aren’t responding well to the way he is managing the team anymore. Theo didn’t just invent the issues he’s having with Maddon and the way he’s running things
Well stated, Stan. Theo has not been perfect either but he’s holding the cards for the next two years. If he doesn’t play them correctly, his day of reckoning will come, too.
How is his reckoning not coming now. This team pooped the bed last year and are doing it again this year. Maddon didn’t assemble all that garbage, did he?
He’s got two strikes on him then. Let’s see if he can deliver this winter.
WITH a myriad of injuries to key players, a bullpen full of diarrhea, and 2 functioning starting pitchers. Like I said, to anyone that has actually watched the games all year long, this team was basically playing with one arm tied behind their backs. It’s like giving someone a bicycle with one wheel and saying “WHY DIDN’T YOU WIN THE RACE?!?!????”
Ummmm how are the Brewers doing with all the injuries to their team? Hiura, Yelich, Moose, Cain, Woodruff, and Knebel all spent time on the IL. Not to mention that only 2/5 of the projected rotation remains with the team. Top starter last year was Chacin. Released. Peralta and Burnes flopped. Talk about playing with one hand behind their backs. You don’t see the Brewers making excuses do you? Seems like the Brewers are going to win the race with one wheel.
Firing Maddon won’t change anything. The roster is not very good, and it’s Epstein’s fault. He should have Fowler and Chapman to stay. Three years later and he’s still trying to replace both of them, and doing a poor job of it. And Chattwood? What was that. NOBODY thought that signing made any sense. They still owe $86MM to Jason Heyward. Which means they’ve already paid him $100MM to deliver a “speech” and catch a few pop flies in right field. Epstein and Hoyer deserve most of the blame for the early demise of the cubs. The players themselves deserve the rest for stinking the place up every game. Overrated is the word that best describes them now.
*Should have PAID…
Underperforming is the word for the Cubs roster, not overrated.
You can only hope that the Sox rise to the level that the Cubs achieved. Maybe they will meet in 2021 WS. Like someone said above, I’ll turn off my MLB the Show now.
Nah they’re overrated. With all the talent that they have, who can forget because you fans remind us any chance you get, they should’ve ran away with the division.
Joe was gone the minute Alex Cora won Boston a World Series while making $800K/year. Or when the Yankees gave Aaron Boone the keys to the most valuable franchise for around $1.3M/season. Teams have shown they can win without the veteran [expensive] manager in the dugout, especially if all the game-planning is done from the front office/scouting department. All you need is a guy to take orders from above. Maddon, Francona, Bochy, they are not going to listen to the suits & stat nerds tell them what to do in-game.
What teams want is a “yes man” who will babysit the players and keep them out of trouble. You don’t need to pay big bucks for that. You can go cheap; remember there are only 30 MLB Manager jobs on the planet. So Joe is gone. I’d be shocked if he came back at this point. The Cubs should never have let him manage the season under a lame-duck status… that’s how they ended up with a Pitching Coach & Hitting Coach who were basically nobodies; they should have had guys lining up to work with this group.
Thing is though, is that those are three of the most successful managers in the league. Being yes man doesn’t bring you championships
Nobodies become somebodies all the time. What do yo think Joe was in 2006?
And mostly, they become nobodies again.
Bykoric, agree with first paragraph. For confirmation, see Roberts, David – Loa Angeles Dodgers.
He signs a 3 year contact
If the Cubs were going to fire Maddon, they would have/ should have done so on many occasions. They will end it with class and not extend or resign him like any other free agent and part ways.
Next Cub manager…. Ryne Sandburg?
Next Cub bench coach….. David Ross?
That’s deep.
If I’m an owner, I have one simple rule. If the manager gets fired, then the guy who hired him gets fired too.
I honestly think firing a manager is one power that GM’s/Presidents should not have. Because, FAR too many times, you’ll find that they’re only firing them to use them as a scapegoat for their own garbage job — which is the case right here.
If I was an owner, I would hire a President/GM, and he would have every other power in the organization, EXCEPT firing of the manager. That would be my discretion. If I was Ricketts, in this situation I wouldn’t fire anyone.
I would give Theo another 2 years to sort this out, and I would sign Maddon to a 2 year extension. If at the end of this two years, things still haven’t improved, all parties would likely be given the heave ho.
Maddon goes. Great manager but it’s time for the Cubs to shake it up. I bet Maddon goes to the White Sox or Padres.
Then the Cubs hire back Renteria. It’ll be like this five-year bad dream never happened.
Angels fire Ausmus, hire Maddon and with Pujols contract off the books of in 2 years sign Javi Baez, Francisco Lindor, Nolan Arrenado and Noah Syndergaard and win 3 World Series in a 5 year span
Or not.
Mark Loretta, next up.
Imagine if Theo actually signed a closer the last two years or if Ricketts actually opened his purse during our short window. Maddon is NOT the problem.
Hello Angels
I’m a Cards fan, so I’m an outsider, but I have been following baseball for years. To me, Maddon seems like a guy that is very smart. He also seems like a guy that thinks he’s even smarter than he is. That kind of person has an expiration date.
Again, I’m not sure, but it seems like there is a cult of personality surrounding him, and the main proponent is himself.
I hope not.
KB wont be gone either unless they get deGrom or someone close to him. or the package they gave up for Quintana or what the nats gave up for Lucas Giolito..which was way too much tbh. They gave up adam Eaton. Which was way over pay for him..