The Joe Maddon era in Chicago is over.
Just before Sunday’s season finale against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Chicago Cubs held a press conference with Maddon and Theo Epstein to announce that the manager will not return for a sixth season with the franchise.
Epstein and Maddon announced that they reached the mutual decision after having a bottle of wine in a hotel room on Saturday night following their win over the Cardinals.
The Cubs will now go in a new direction at manager with the names David Ross and Joe Girardi being floated out there already. There haven’t been any official reports on the replacements but the Cubs will begin their search right away.
In five years as manager, Maddon went 471-338 including leading the Cubs to two divisional titles and a World Series title in 2016, helping end a historic draught. But the final two years didn’t go as planned.
Chicago blew September leads for both the division (2018) and Wild Card (2019. They lost in the one-game playoff to Minnesota in 2018 and then the Wild Card game to Colorado. In 2019, his team faltered down the stretch and blew the Wild Card lead over Milwaukee.
Maddon will be a hot name on the market with a few teams now needing new managers in 2019.
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