Cubs make it official: Rick Renteria out, Joe Maddon in
The most awkward week in recent Cubs history ended Friday with the firing of manager Rick Renteria and the hiring of Joe Maddon.
The Cubs will introduce Maddon as their next field boss on Monday. Just hours after dismissing Renteria on Friday, team officials announced plans for an afternoon news conference to begin the Maddon era.
It was a week ago Friday that news broke of Maddon opting out of his contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. Immediately, speculation began that Maddon and the Cubs would be a good fit, even though Renteria was under contract for two more seasons.
The Cubs did nothing to quell that speculation. Instead of issuing a statement backing Renteria, team president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer remained silent.
That silence continued for a full week while Renteria was left in managerial limbo after serving the Cubs well for one season.
On Friday, the Cubs made official what everybody seemed to was coming. Epstein's only comment Friday came in a statement that announced the firing.
The carefully crafted statement addressed the situation on many levels, seeking to head off talk that the Cubs had “tampered” with Maddon while he was still under contract while praising Renteria for the job he did in his only season as a big-league manager.
Epstein said the Cubs offered Renteria “a choice of other positions with the Cubs” but that he is free to look elsewhere. Currently, only the Minnesota Twins have a managerial opening.
Renteria was not available for comment.
“Rick's sterling reputation should only be enhanced by his season as Cubs manager,” Epstein's statement read. “We challenged Rick to create an environment in which our young players could develop and thrive at the big league level, and he succeeded. Working with the youngest team in the league and an imperfect roster, Rick had the club playing hard and improving throughout the season. His passion, character, optimism and work ethic showed up every single day.
“Rick deserved to come back for another season as Cubs manager, and we said as much when we announced that he would be returning in 2015. We met with Rick two weeks ago for a long end-of-season evaluation and discussed plans for next season. We praised Rick to the media and to our season ticket holders. These actions were made in good faith.”
Media reports out of Tampa Bay have indicated the Rays might seek to have Major League Baseball punish the Cubs for tampering with Maddon. Epstein's statement seemed to deal with that.
“Last Thursday, we learned that Joe Maddon — who may be as well suited as anyone in the industry to manage the challenges that lie ahead of us — had become a free agent,” Epstein said. “We confirmed the news with Major League Baseball, and it became public knowledge the next day. We saw it as a unique opportunity and faced a clear dilemma: be loyal to Rick or be loyal to the organization. In this business of trying to win a world championship for the first time in 107 years, the organization has priority over any one individual. We decided to pursue Joe.
“While there was no clear playbook for how to handle this type of situation, we knew we had to be transparent with Rick before engaging with Joe. Jed flew to San Diego last Friday and told Rick in person of our intention to talk to Joe about the managerial job. Subsequently, Jed and I provided updates to Rick via telephone and today informed him that we will indeed make a change.”
In Maddon, the Cubs will be getting a two-time Manager of the Year who led the Rays to the 2008 World Series. At 60, he's seen as a progressive thinker and one who keeps his team loose and fresh.
Among baseball insiders, he's regarded as one of the top three or four managers in the game, right alongside the Giants' Bruce Bochy, who this week won his third World Series. The Cubs believe their massive rebuilding program is slightly ahead of schedule, and they apparently feel Maddon is the manager to lead them to the next level.
Still to be determined is the makeup of the Cubs coaching staff. They just hired hitting coach John Mallee and first-base coach Doug Dascenzo. Pitching coach Chris Bosio has won good reviews for his work the last three seasons, under Renteria and former manager Dale Sveum. Renteria led the Cubs to a record of 73-89 this year, after they went 66-96 under Sveum in his second final season in 2013.
The Cubs brought in Renteria to create a more relaxed environment for young players Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo, both of whom suffered down years in 2013. Each made the National League all-star team this year.
Renteria's mood was upbeat most days, and the Cubs did not collapse despite trading away starting pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammell on the Fourth of July. They went 16-14 in August and 12-13 in September, a month when both Castro and Rizzo missed significant time because of injuries.
• Follow Bruce Miles on Twitter@BruceMiles2112.