The honeymoon period ended pretty quick for some Cubs fans and Joe Maddon. Even after winning the 2016 World Series, Maddon was crucified for his bullpen usage and the good vibes have kind of worn off entering year five of the marriage on the North Side.
Yet, Maddon is still a very good manager no matter what your pessimistic group of Cubs fans friends might think. And because there is a decent chunk of Cubs fans who now can’t stand Maddon, these MLB manager rankings might be a surprise.
With these we get an outsider’s perspective, as Nick Cafardo from the Boston Globe ranked all 30 MLB managers. Joe Maddon comes in at No. 6 on this list.
6. Joe Maddon, Cubs — Maddon reinvented managing in this era, combining the heavily analytics slant of the Rays when he ran that team to the big-market, high-resource Cubs, where he ended the franchise’s 108-year drought between championships.
Hmmm, so someone else doesn’t think Joe Maddon is the worst manager in baseball?
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Yes, Maddon does deserve to hear from critics for how he handles the bullpen at times. He should get grilled and seemingly was called out by the front office for not having his team have a greater sense of urgency throughout the 2018 season, but much of the kicking and screaming about him is pretty dumb.
That being said there’s no guarantee Maddon will return to the Cubs after 2019. He starts this year as a lame-duck manager after the Cubs passed on negotiating an extension this offseason. Theo Epstein said they’d revisit talks near the end or after the season finished.
The Cubs have won the most games in MLB since Maddon took over in the dugout in 2015. The team reached the NLCS three years in a row and for the first time in team history made it to the postseason four consecutive seasons. It’s the most successful run in team history and Maddon’s been the guy in the dugout to watch it all.
But he faces a new challenge in 2019. For the first time in this era the Cubs are being doubted and have their backs up against the wall. The year of reckoning has arrived and Maddon has to get his guys to respond to the adversity.
So, that means it’s time for a new team slogan.
Maddon's slogan for 2019 Cubs: "own it now."
Talking about own each moment and points out "now" backwards is "won."
— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) February 12, 2019
All right. Hopefully the slogan in 2020 for the Cubs is “still hungover” after winning another World Series.
h/t: Cubs Insider
