Joe Maddon managed his last game for the Chicago Cubs against the St. Louis Cardinals, at Busch ... [+]
Joe Maddon has come home to the Los Angeles Angels. It was a no-brainer.
After 30 years in the organization at all levels, not to mention highly successful stints leading the Tampa Bay Rays and the Chicago Cubs, Maddon has returned to the Angels as their manager, the club announced Wednesday morning.
He signed a three-year deal reportedly in the range of $12 million to $15 million, a cut from the $6 million he made this past season, his final one of five with the Cubs.
"We are thrilled that Joe is coming back home and bringing an exciting brand of baseball to our fans," general manager Billy Eppler said in a release. "Every stop he has made throughout his managerial career he has built a culture that is focused on winning while also allowing his players to thrive.
"We believe Joe will be a great asset for our club and look forward to him leading the team to another World Series championship."
Maddon was the bench coach under Mike Scioscia in 2002 when the wild-card-winning Angels defeated the San Francisco Giants to win their only World Series, coming back from a 3-2 deficit to capture the series in seven games.
The Angels are the first to fill a bevy of managerial positions left empty in an avalanche of firings near or at the end of the regular season.
There are still seven positions open, with the New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres, Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and San Francisco Giants.
Veteran managers out there waiting to fill them are Joe Girardi, Dusty Baker, Buck Showalter, John Farrell, Mike Scioscia, Clint Hurdle, Fredi Gonzalez and even Bruce Bochy, who retired from the Giants.
A number of them have been mentioned as far as the interview process is concerned with these various clubs.
The question is whether MLB teams will continue to fill these positions with younger, untested and cheaper options or, like the Angels, go for experience.
"My hope is that it shifts back," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said last week. "There's a lot of good baseball men out there, who have managed before, have good experience, great experience, and are open-minded to young players, information, and just their feel for the game. That's my hope."
The Angels parted ways with Scioscia last year after 19 seasons, largely because Eppler wanted to bring in his own man. He had hired Brad Ausmus as a consultant, elevating him as manager with disastrous results.
The team plummeted from back-to-back 80-82 seasons under Scioscia to 72-90 under Ausmus. He was fired after a season marred by numerous injuries, and the death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs, found in a Texas hotel room having overdosed on a combination of pain-killing drugs, ultimately choking on his own vomit.
The organization is currently under federal investigation regarding the death, one that will be followed by an MLB investigation.
Maddon is stepping into this situation, plus a season that ended with surgery to two of the Angels' top players: Mike Trout (right foot) and Shohei Ohtani (left knee).
In addition, Ohtani is in the final phases of recovering from Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ulnar ligament in his right elbow on Oct. 1, 2018.
Ohtani, the two-way Japanese star, was used only as a designated hitter this season, and has made just one start off the mound since June of last year.
Both players are expected to be healthy and back for spring training when it opens February at Temple Diablo Stadium in Arizona.
"He will hopefully conclude his throwing program at some point in early December at which point we'll give him appropriate time off and derive our program at that time for what that looks like going into 2020," Eppler said last month about Ohtani's progress.
Eppler, heading into the final year of his contract, is undoubtedly on the bubble himself.
The Angels haven't made the playoffs since he took over baseball operations in 2015, and have only done so once since 2009. During the Trout era, the team last went to an American League Division Series in '14 where they were swept by the Kansas City Royals in the best-of-five series.
Plus last offseason, Eppler made a number of bad signings - Matt Harvey, Trevor Cahill, Cody Allen, Jonathan Lucroy and Justin Bour for a total of $34.4 million. Only Cahill and Bour finished the season with the team. Harvey, Allen and Lucroy were all released with the Angels on the hook for the remainder of those contracts.
Maddon has coped with a lot of this before, and at 65, he's a great hire for the Angels.
He left Anaheim after 30 years to manage the Rays and replace Lou Piniella in 2006 where they lost 101 games in Maddon's first season. With the advent of the infield defensive shift and a wave of great young players, by 2008 the Rays made their only World Series where they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in five games.
After nine seasons he used an opt out clause in his contract to leave the Rays, and in 2015 joined the Cubs, a team that dropped 89 games the previous season.
Again, Maddon rode a wave of young talent sprinkled amply with tough veterans Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta and Jason Hayward to make the playoffs the next four seasons, and the National League Championship Series three years running from 2015-17.
In 2016, the Cubs won their first pennant since 1945 and went on to win the World Series for the first time in 108 years when they defeated the Cleveland Indians in a tournament that went down to the final pitch of Game 7's 10th inning before it was decided.
Maddon seemed on the outs with baseball operations all this past season, his contract expiring, it seemed that only another World Series win would save his job.
When the Cubs failed to make the postseason again, Theo Epstein, their president of baseball operations, announced Maddon's departure before the final game of the regular season.
With a .581 winning percentage in five seasons, and that hallowed World Series victory, Maddon is clearly the best manager in the modern history of the Cubs.
There's a lot more in his managerial tank. Expect Chicago's loss to be the Angels' gain.
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