Kicking off the offseason in grand – albeit controversial – fashion, the Chicago Cubs introduced Joe Maddon as the 54th manager in franchise history Monday at a press conference that was full of promises, excitement and quirks.
"“For me, I’m going to be talking playoffs next year,” Maddon said. “I’m going to tell you that right now. Because I can’t go to Spring Training and say any other thing. I’m just incapable of doing that. Why would you even report? It’s all about setting your standards and your goals high, because if you don’t set them high enough you might actually hit your mark."
Maddon, 60, received a five-year, $25 million deal with incentives tied to postseason performances and appearances from Chicago, which hired its first high-profile skipper since Lou Piniella left mid-season back in Aug. 2010. The former Tampa Bay Rays manager, who is known for his mix of new and old-school thinking, said he welcomed the challenge in the Windy City and looked forward to postseason baseball at Wrigley Field, which he called a “cathedral.”
"“Why would you not want to accept this challenge?” Maddon said. “In this city, in that ballpark, under these circumstances with this talent. It’s an extraordinary moment, not just in club history but in today’s game. This confluence of all these items coming together at the same time is pretty impressive.”"
The team fired manager Rick Renteria last week just weeks after publicly praising the work he did in his first season as a big league skipper, drawing fire from executives and other individuals around the game – even drawing rumors of tampering with Maddon while he was still under contract in Tampa Bay, which has been vehemently denied by both Maddon and his agent.
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Theo Epstein, who signed a five-year contract with the Cubs back in Oct. 2011 to serve as the team’s president of baseball operations, offered nothing but praise for Maddon during Monday’s presser.
"“Joe is a combination of just about everything we look for in a manager. Everyone associates him with new-school because they’ve used analytics in Tampa and he’s so open-minded and so progressive. But this is an old-school baseball guy with a wealth of knowledge. … It’s hard to find that. It’s hard to find old-school and new-school in the same package.”"
During his tenure with the Rays, Maddon won the American League Manager of the Year Award twice, including the 2008 season when he led Tampa Bay to its first-ever World Series appearance. His clubs strung together five-straight 90-win seasons during this time as the team’s manager and only after Andrew Friedman departed for the Los Angeles Dodgers did leaving the Rays become an option, according to reports.
An opt-out clause in Maddon’s contract and subsequent failed extension talks with the Rays led to his departure from Tampa Bay. Once that happened, the Cubs quickly emerged as the favorites to land him.