The San Francisco Giants, Cleveland Guardians, San Diego Padres, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets and Los Angeles Angels all had job openings entering the offseason.
All of them except the Giants are still open.
We're hearing about bench coaches being interviewed, former players, bullpen coaches - a lot of different suspects. You know who we're not hearing about?
Former World Series winning manager Joe Maddon. The former Rays, Cubs and Angels manager can't get a call for any of these jobs. Why?
John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times discussed on Wednesday:
Just like last offseason when four other GMs decided not to call Maddon. One of the most accomplished managers to ever fill out a lineup card, Maddon has gone from a hot commodity to a forgotten man, and hardly anyone in baseball is talking about it...
Maddon thinks he knows the answer, and suspects it has nothing to do with his performance in the dugout. Instead, he thinks general managers were turned off by the memoir he wrote with Tom Verducci (The Book of Joe; Trying Not to Suck at Baseball & Life) and his willingness to speak out about creeping interference from front offices into clubhouses, specifically in Anaheim where he was fired in the summer of 2022.
Given the pervasiveness of analytics in today's game, that's certainly quite possible. Front offices want to have a connectivity with their on-field staff through analytics, not be fighting with their staff about it.
Maddon has managed 19 years in the big leagues with those three teams. He's 1,382-1,216 in those years and led the Cubs to the 2016 World Series.
More must-reads: