Subscribe
Follow Us
Joe Maddon will not return to the Chicago Cubs in 2020 after five years managing the club. Maddon and Cubs president Theo Epstein got together on Saturday night to discuss the move:
Joe and Theo got together last night, split a bottle of wine in Theo's hotel room and came to the conclusion that their five year run together had come to an end.
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) September 29, 2019
Both Maddon and Epstein said the decision was mutual. The 65-year-old skipper plans to keep managing and will have numerous teams inquiring about his services:
The top three potential landing spots for Joe Maddon: The #Mets, #Padres and #Phillies.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) September 29, 2019
The writing was on the wall for Maddon going back to the beginning of the season. He was entering the final year of his contract without an extension, and there were hints that the Cubs were ready to go in another direction. Chicago's failure to make the playoffs this season only made this decision easier.
While things ended on a down note for Maddon in Chicago, he should be a legend for all the success he had with the franchise. The Cubs hired Maddon to replace Rick Renteria after the 2014 season, and they made a run to the National League Championship Series in 2015. They got swept by the New York Mets.
Then, in 2016, Maddon's Cubs ended the franchise's 108-year championship drought, winning 103 regular-season games and then beating the Cleveland Indians in the World Series while coming back from a 3-1 deficit. The Cubs won an instant classic Game 7 in extra innings to break their “curse.”
Chicago returned to the NLCS in 2017, only to lose to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games. The Cubs then lost to the Colorado Rockies in the Wild Card Game in 2018.
Maddon is 471-338-1 in the regular season with the Cubs, with one final game to play against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday.
