The Chicago Cubs officially hired Joe Maddon as its new manager on Friday, and will introduce the former Tampa Bay Rays manager in a news conference on Monday, the team announced. Maddon is the 54th manager in Cubs history.
Former manager Rick Renteria, who has two years remaining on his contract, was fired earlier on Friday.
Maddon, 60, exercised an opt-out clause in his contract with the Rays on Oct. 24, a provision that was triggered when Tampa Bay general manager Andrew Friedman left to become the new president of baseball operations on Oct. 14. Maddon had one year remaining on his contract, worth a reported $1.85 million.
Multiple reports had Maddon and the Rays close to an agreement on Wednesday before Game 7 of the World Series, but nothing was finalized until Friday. There were apparently up to 10 teams that showed interest in the free agent manager, who also reportedly had an offer to work in media, his agent Alan Nero told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times on Wednesday.
In a statement, Cubs president Theo Epstein on Friday said the club saw a "unique opportunity" to pursue Maddon once he became available.
"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. "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."
Maddon was 754-705 (.517) in his nine years in Tampa Bay, including four playoff appearances, two division titles and one World Series appearance, averaging 90 wins per season in the last seven years despite an average annual payroll of $60.6 million from 2008-14.
When he was hired by the Rays — after spending 31 seasons in the Angels organization, including 13 years as a major league coach — Maddon took over a team that averaged 97 losses in its first eight years of existence, never losing fewer than 91 games in a season.
Similarly, the Cubs have suffered through five straight losing seasons soon after back-to-back postseason appearances in 2007-2008, averaging 93 losses over the last five campaigns. Maddon will be the Cubs' fifth manager in six seasons.
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