Joe Maddon is pleased to be returning to the Angels organization as the team’s new manager, the veteran skipper tells ESPN.com’s Alden Gonzalez. Rumors about Maddon taking over the managerial post swirled for much of last season, and the Angels ended up being the only team Maddon officially interviewed with, after a dinner with owner Arte Moreno, team president John Carpino and GM Billy Eppler. “I just thought it would’ve been disingenuous to accept interviews with anyone else if I truly wanted to be here. And then, after it was all set and done, it couldn’t have been more obvious it was the right thing to do for me,” Maddon said.
Maddon also touched on his departure from Chicago, telling Gonzalez that he decided during the 2019 season that he was ready to move on from the team. There was heavy speculation that the Cubs were planning a managerial change when no extension talks were held with Maddon prior to his last year under contract, and Maddon said some “philosophical differences” emerged following what was perceived as a disappointing 2018 season. The front office “wanted to control more of what was occurring in just about everything,” Maddon said, as “when I started there — ’15, ’16, ’17 — it was pretty much my methods. And then all of a sudden, after ’18 going into ’19, they wanted to change everything.”
Interestingly, Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein provided something of a counterpoint to Maddon’s statement, telling The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma that he didn’t feel any “philosophical differences” existed with Maddon. Epstein didn’t entirely deny that the front office played a larger role in 2019, as while he didn’t see the extra attention as overly controlling, he felt he had to address what he saw as a “growing organizational complacency” in the clubhouse. “I think his [Maddon’s] approach was more that things will work themselves out. These are great players, let them play and these things will work out,” Epstein said. “From my perspective, there was a little bit more cause for concern. It wasn’t an everyday thing that I would try to step in and offer feedback, help and remind about expectations.”
Some more out of Anaheim…
- Right-hander Justin Anderson will be out for four-to-six weeks and will begin the season on the injured list, Maddon told MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger and other reporters. Anderson suffered a Grade 2 strain in his left oblique while playing catch on Tuesday. The 27-year-old is entering his third season in Los Angeles and looking to improve on an injury-hampered 2019 that saw Anderson post a 5.55 ERA over 47 relief innings, while battling a trapezoid issue.
- Maddon also provided an update (to the Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya and other reporters) on right-hander Felix Pena, who is expected to be ready for Opening Day. Pena tore his right ACL last August and had a projected recovery time of six-to-nine months, though it seems as if Pena is progressing well and won’t require the long end of that projection. Pena has a 4.38 ERA, 8.9 K/9, and 3.00 K/BB rate over 189 innings since the Angels acquired him in a deal with the Cubs during the 2017-18 offseason, with Pena starting 24 of his 41 games as a semi-regular rotation fill-in for the Halos’ many pitching injuries. Most notably, Pena tossed the final seven innings of the Angels’ combined no-hitter on July 12, entering the game as the bulk pitcher after opener Taylor Cole.
- Angels pitching prospect Jose Soriano will miss the entire 2020 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo reports (Twitter link). At the end of last season, MLB Pipeline ranked the right-hander as the ninth-best minor leaguer in the Angels’ farm system, praising Soriano’s “electric fastball” that sits in the 97-98mph range and a breaking ball that “trends towards being a plus pitch.” The 21-year-old Soriano is coming off a solid season spent mostly at A-ball Burlington, posting a 2.55 ERA, 9.7 K/9, and 1.75 K/BB rate over 77 2/3 innings (starting 15 of 17 games).
Don’t worry, Justin, we all have problems with our shapes at some point.
Could’ve been worse–at least it wasn’t a torn quadrilateral.
I once got my pentagon stuck in a rhombus decagon. One word: painful.
That’s what she said ?
If she had felt it…
This comments section should be pleasant.
“When we were playing well, we were using my methods. Then when the FO took things over, we sucked.”
I mean, the growing complacency was pretty obvious to most people watching while it was still under Maddon’s watch. I don’t think Theo was wrong at all to step in to try to change it. I think it would have been worse if they would have let Maddon keep going.
I doubt he sees it that way though, he’s got a unique view of the world lol.
I had Castellanos, Bryant and Rizzo in my fantasy league, I watched them a lot.
Bryant and Rizzo could barely walk and Quintana was horrid.
I didn’t see complacency, I saw players banged up and a pitchers who couldn’t pitch.
The Cubs just didn’t have the starting pitching in ‘19. And in ‘20 both the starting pitching AND the BP has gotten worse. The offense can’t carry the team alone.
I think maddon is more of a positive motivation players manager type and then works for some time but can wear off after some time and then he isn’t the guy who can really discipline guys
Hang in there Justin Geometry is tough bud
Should’ve asked him why the Pederson/Stripling deal got shelved.
He issued a very weak, fairly vague statement Tuesday. I’d link it, but it tells nothing.
Mind boggling that the Cubs didn’t win more than one WS with a great, young roster that already knew what it took in crunch time
Not really. Giants, Cardinals, Red Sox all had seasons under .500 between their WS wins. You have to go back to the Yankees 3-peat from 1898-2000.
WOW 1898-2000. Should be 1998 to 2000 though.
1
Most of the yanks titles were in the 1800’s I believe.
It ain’t over yet. Same core is still in place. They won one much quicker than the great Braves teams of the 90s.
The Braves thing still baffles me. I realize the playoffs are a crap shoot and that the best overall team doesn’t win with much regularity.
But to get 14 bites at the apple and have the best starting staff pretty much all 14 times, you’d think you’d get more than 1.
I assume, but have never seen, someone has done a statistical breakdown of those three in the postseason during that stretch. Their combined stats vs. other Braves postseason starters, bullpen stats in games they started, overall record, run support, if they were tied/leading/trailing when they left their starts, and all other sort of number crunching breakdowns just to see if there’s an explanation
Considering the avalanche of information we have nowadays, you are probably right.
It just, even a roll of the dice should come up your way more than 1 out of 14 times, especially a weighted one considering their pitching staff.
DBird, only three teams this century have won more than one World Series.
I don’t know how you call that Mind Boggling.
Or conversely, in the 19 years of this “century”, 3 teams have already won multiple WSs.
Because Theo sold out their window for 2016. Wasn’t a bad move since it broke the curse but Torres for a rental and other bad moves killed whatever chances they had at winning multiple chips. But like I said not a bad move since that franchise just needed 1 so bad.
Broke a curse and won a title. Many great teams don’t cross the threshold. Verlander Tigers, Maddux Braves, Bonds Pirates. Etc.
If Maddon wins with the Angels then he great, not merely good. If he loses, then still good but probably not HOF great.
I think maddon with cubs didnt work because theo wants to be “the guy”. To this point he has had 2 hall of fame caliber coaches win rings for him. Seems to have a huge ego so he got ross to manage “his” team.
I think you’re way off base. If you watched that team from ’14 to last season, “complacency” is the right word for what’s happened to them. That team was on fire in ’15 and ’16. Madden can complain about interference from the FO all he wants, but that complacency grew under his watch and Epstein had every right to be concerned. Anybody watching games the last couple of years has seen it.
Rondon,
Right, it’s a disagreement of philosophies. I don’t even know which one is right. Maddon thought his players were professional and being professional, they would work things out. Epstein thought they he needed to be involved in helping them work things out.
Hey, I like Maddon. I really hope he does well for your Angels. But this is not a stat thing that can be measured. Through my eyes I saw a group of talented, hungry guys make their way to the championship over several years. What ever that ‘thing’ was they had, has been missing ever since. I would also add that Dexter Fowler was the straw that stirred that drink and his absence, or lack of any legit lead off man has been a big reason as well. Go Angels!
So if Theo should have and in fact DID take a larger part in day to day decision making is it Joe’s fault they grossly underperformed last year or Theo’s?
Maddon I could tell was sick of Lester and his complaining at umps every game and sometimes his position players a couple years ago. Was that Joe’s fault? I’ve always said it’s convenient how Cubs always bring up how Theo broke the curse. But how come he never gets the blame for their downward slide every year since then?
Funny, I’ve seen a lot of posts that say it was Maddon who broke the curse. I think they all contributed. The fact is, they got lazy when it came to fundamentals. They made more outs on base than nearly any other team in the ML last year. You can’t blame that kind of thing on Epstein.
Rondon, was the complacency in the dugout or in the FO? The Cubs sure are ALL IN for 2020.
Having the front office run the dugout is a trend in MLB now. The Cubs modeled themselves after the Yankees. The VP of hitting sets the lineup. The VP of pitching sets the rotation and bullpen roles. The manager does whatever is left.
I simply cannot stand this guy. Such a self absorbed Dbag.
Did Felix Pena bang your wife or something?
@qbass187 are you talking about your father?
I don’t know Mark Polishuk enough to make such an assessment.
Leave the poor guy alone, geometry is tough
He didn’t let you copy his geometry hw or copy off his tests in geometry class did he?
No real closer, no real leadoff hitter, no real 2nd baseman, Almora’s poor offensive production, Heyward poor offensive production, and do on.
What Epstein perceives as “complacency” among the players was actually guys not buying in to what the organization was doing. Too many holes left unfilled leads to guys not knowing what their roles are, and not believing in the other guys next to him. That’s a product of poor personnel decisions, not coaching/managing. Ross can mean mug and lecture the players all day—it won’t matter. Until those holes get filled, and roles clearly defined and embraced by the players, the cvbs win totals will continue to drop. They’ll be lucky to win 80 games unless trades are made before June.
I’m thinkin’ the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Yes, they have holes and haven’t had the same spark since Fowler was the lead off man. But those guys, as a team, lost much of the intensity they played with from 14-16. You can only call that complacency and Madden was a big part of that.
You addressed about 1/6th of what he said, the things that result in complacency.
I bet the Cards would be willing to trade them Fowler for pretty much anyone on their roster who isn’t making much money, all they have to do is pick up the phone lol
Rondon, I can only speak to the games I saw vs the Reds. For several years now the Cubs have destroyed the Reds. That changed in 2019. The Reds pitching got much better, while the Cubs pitching got worse. Cubs/Reds series felt much different. It has much more to do with the pitching than the offense. The Cubs no longer have the pitching they once had.
Kimbrel is still a hall of fame closer who had. A bad year, stop being such a homer dude. Worry about the Sox for Christ’s sake
That’s just absurd.
Explain
The main problem is Theo was asleep at the wheel from 2017-2019. He can spin it any way he wants to, but 95% of the problem was (is) him.
Maddon isn’t perfect, but it was actually pretty remarkable that he won as many games as he did the last few years.
Most of the guys were also injured for the last 1.5 months of the season in 2019.
Injuries already for them…playing catch? Now they get hurt just preparing for the season. I guess they don’t want to waste time
I’m highly questioning the conditioning department with the Angels.
Ran into Joe Maddon at a grocery store in Anaheim last week. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to bother him and ask him about the Cubs’ underperformance last year. He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?” I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying. The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter. When she took one of the Milky Ways and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.
Why were you taken aback? You WERE bringing up the Cubs’ underperformance… (which was basically one poorly timed bad week.) I would have found that really annoying, as he clearly and appropriately did. You sound clueless and I don’t buy half this boring story.
That’s because it’s clearly satirical, MoMan
No humor, no punch line, no rational reason to come up with a boring story and it fell flat on satire. Not according to Ebert, Roper or Siskel.
Almost bought your story…yes, Joe is going to steal candy bars. Obv you don’t like him, which is fine, but what a bizarre story to make up.
So Joe was in a grocery store in Anaheim, despite living in Long Beach which is at least 30 minutes away. He then attempted to steal candy bars.
Totally believable story.
Joe might be banned from all the local stores because of his tendencies to shop lift. This story was total BS. I don’t know what the point was.. I just know I wasted time reading it and I will never get that time back.
Fake news! Orange County banned single-use bags, so the cashier probably didn’t bag the candy bars, as was stated.
Those psychotropic prescription medications have far too many side effects, nowadays. This is one of them.
Can’t wait till Rendon faces the Dodgers. The fans are going to boo him mercifully.
Hey stooge why do your dodger fans boo Mike Trout either the dodger fans are jealous or Have no class
At least the angel fans have class
have a nice day stooge
0-4? yup!
No the angels swept the Dodgers last year
Choke choke cough cough
that’s wjat i was saying.
Pretty sure you mean mercilessly.
Have merrrrrcyyyyyyy. -Uncle Jesse.
Anthony “Hollywood” Rendon is going to get booed mercifully at Dodger Stadium.
Both games? I’m sure he can handle it.
4 if you count the preseason games.
Considering all of the beatings and stabbings that take place there, getting booed “mercifully” is getting off really light.
Rendon is going to be booed for his truthful comments and beating the Dodgers like rented mules in last year’s playoffs. Oh noes. I hope he can handle the pressure unlike Kershaw.
The deuce you say!
Yipes. Three substories to this, and they’re all about damage to the pitching staff in one form or another. How can one franchise be so cursed season after season?
Qbass187 I’m assuming you’re referring to Maddon and “shockingly” this is what I posted about before with Cubs fans. Those fans have turned on coaches/players with loving them to hating them so quickly & so many times in last 20 years it’s truly remarkable. Dusty Baker, Sosa, Soriano, Pinella, Zambrano, Samardzija, Maddon, etc, etc.
Go sCrUBS Go!
What did the tree say to the acorn?
Gee I’ma tree.
HOW do you do that playing catch ? aren’t you an athelete ? jesus
If Bryant isn’t traded tomorrow, he won’t be traded until the break. Huge risk for the organization to not trade now. If he suffers an injury or has a bad 1st half of the season, any trade value will be totally gone.
The Angels are missing out on a really good player. Joc Peterson would almost complete your offense. He is an easy 30 home run season hitter. Batting average sometimes below average. But he is a good clutch guy.
Batting average and “clutch”. Wow, 1992 would have loved him.
Keep an eye out on joc this season. You’ll see.
OK I’ll keep an eye on Joc What tean will he be playing for?
What are you a psychic?
Number1dodger Joc Peterson I bet he hits less homeruns than last year less than 30 homers.
You’ll see
look at his home run numbers before the juiced ball.he ain’t much. though stripling is the one we will miss.
Peterson wasn’t even out of high school during the juiced ball
He’s basically Kole Calhoun for $7 million with Jo Adell coming up. He’s not a really good player. He’s consistently above average.
Fans often point to the star Cubbie position players, but it’s been the starting rotation and bullpen where the Cubs’ slippage has occured. They never recovered from the losses of Arrieta and Chapman. Arrieta was basically replaced in the rotation by meh Quintana and the closer role has been a mixed bag including rusty ol Kimbrel last season. Joe was certainly at the healm navigating, but the decline can be pinpointed on the mound.
I believe the phrase is after all is “said” and done, not “set” and done. English is hard.
Maddon’s weakness as a manager has always been his construction and handling of the bullpen.It was in Tampa and it was in Chicago.
Maddon won the World Series in spite of himself against an undermanned Indians pitching staff,
You can say the same thing about Bobby Cox and his Braves teams that featured three HOF starters.
Tampa sure hasn’t ever shown any signs of missing Maddon.
I didn’t see Maddon’s managerial style change at all last year,
It was the same micro, over managing method he’s used every year, with too much platooning and position switching, along with a lack of getting certain players to pursue better pitch selection at the plate and a willingness to play more small ball offensively.
Yes, he ran into some injury and pitching issues. Those things aren’t trivial. But he was unable to manage his way around them. He also flipped his hitting and pitching coaches too many times the last few years.
Guessing he’ll do better with the Angels this year, with the new scene and a few really good players on that team.
The Cubs ownership seems like they’re positioning the roster to sell the team. I think that would be good. They’ve done so little this off-season that guys like Baez and Rizzo aren’t going to want to re-up, even if management wanted to resign them.
Jesus.
Cubs FO made their splashes in free agency rather than taking a risk to make a trade to fill the holes necessary. The Ian Happ usage, or lack thereof, also strange considering the production out of Almora. They could have platooned in CF. Descalo wasn’t an answer either and I highly doubt Maddon wanted him. Maddon being cute with his lineups is on Maddon.
The Angels catching another bad break with their pitching. Seems the injury bug stretches beyond the big league club.
You lost me at not playing Happ enough. As with Almora, the cvbs gave Happ more than adequate playing time to shorten his swing, cut down on the strikeouts, and win a starting job over tears. He’s just been terrible at the plate. Players, especially young players, need to earn the right to play everyday. That’s how it works in thr big leagues, and in life.
Usage or lack thereof was the line.
When a player is far away better than the next guy, sure. Except there wasn’t an adequate solution in-house. Even when Zobrist walked away from the team to handle personal issues. Given the small sample in 2019 plus the lack of true support in your comment I’d say you are lost. All I have to do is check every White Sox story on this site to confirm that. That’s how it works in real life.
Why do cvbs fans always ignore obvious facts and situations? Happ should be the starting 2B right now. You know why he isn’t? He strikes out waaayyy to much to be useful as an everyday player. He’s probably as good as Schwarber in terms of power, but he just has no discipline and one if the LONGEST swings I’ve ever seen. You guys whined about Maddon not starting Almora or Happ everyday. THEY’RE NOT EVERYDAY PLAYERS. Easy outs ride the pine unless you’re getting paid $187MM.
I know Maddon was with the Angels for a ton of years, before, but I was really young and I don’t remember. So, as a Cubs fan, it’s just very weird seeing him in another uniform. From 2014 until the end of 2019, those really were Cubs glory years. I will always remember him as the manager that won it all. He will always be a Cub for life. Hope he does well for the Angels and I will be rooting for him/them. Thanks again, Joe. You’ll be very missed here in Chicago. Won’t be the same.
Finally, some class from a cvbs fan.
All the Epstein and Maddon praise and now look at them.. Maddon made a lot of bad moves managing the cubs.. he almost lost the ws with his moves regarding the bp.. Epstein made a ton of bad deals and put the blame on Maddon.. now they have Ross and at least for 2020 can’t spend money and have no prospects… Epstein raided the farm and now the cubs are left with nothing.. an over paid roster, no farm, a no experience manager and a frustrated front office. And they have to look at Eloy and Cease on the south side. That Quintana deal is only gonna look worse and worse.
Joe managed the WS the way he did because the bullpen SUCKED. It was complete garbage aside from Chapman who was absolutely filthy. I’m sure Joe would have loved to manage situations more conventionally against Cleveland by letting everyone play their roles and staying out of it, but the cvbs would have blown it like they always do. Take Joe and Chapman off the team, and they’d never have reached the WS to begin with.
Maddon is the most overrated manager in modern history. He’s the consummate whiner about umpires and while he loves his players to play aggressively—like standing on the plate or going in high or out of line in slides—but he cries when a pitcher throws inside, a batter gets plunked or fielders take offense.
Glad he’s gone from the Cubs
I’m glad he left, too. The cvbs didn’t deserve him. Joe will win another championship before the cvbs ever do again.