Chicago Cubs: Was Joe Maddon’s firing justified?

The Chicago Cubs announced on Sunday that Manager Joe Maddon wouldn’t be returning for the 2020 MLB season.

If you’ve followed the Chicago Cubs all throughout 2019, words cannot describe how bad the Cubs were this season. When things seemed to be going in the right direction, everything came crashing down and it seemed like the Cubs just couldn’t figure it all out.

On Sunday, the Cubs announced that Joe Maddon wouldn’t be returning to the team after five years, one of which saw Maddon be the driving force behind the 2016 World Series. It’s fair to wonder, was Maddon’s firing justified?

Here’s the deal: No it wasn’t. Maddon has done more with less over the last three seasons. It’s unfair to blame him for something such as bullpen issues. If you’re going to point the finger at anyone here, point it at Theo Epstein and the rest of the front office for giving Maddon the resources he needed to succeed.

With the offseason basically here for the Cubs, there’s no knowing what to expect from Epstein and Jed Hoyer. There could be more changes on the horizon in terms of front office turnover or the only new face in the Cubs dugout next season could be a new manager.

We’ve all heard the saying that in sports, you’re judged by wins and losses. Since joining the Cubs in 2015, Maddon has 429 wins. Upon arriving in Chicago in 2015, he immediately began proving that the Cubs could be something special. In his first season, he’d lead the Cubs to the third-best record in the MLB.  Maddon’s second season? A World Series title. Between 2017 and 2018, the Cubs would appear in the NLCS and the NL Wild Card game.

The point being made here is this: Maddon has one of the more accomplished resumes in baseball and for him to be fired just because he didn’t make the playoffs once out of five seasons makes no sense. If anything, the Cubs could’ve at least given him one more year and then if change was needed, move on from Maddon in 2020.

Look, did Maddon make some mistakes along the way? Yes, but every manager has made mistakes at some point in their careers. Some of the issues that the Cubs dealt with this year weren’t even his fault. Now, Maddon is likely headed for greener pastures and be the manager of a team that will actually give him everything he needs to succeed.

But the bottomline is this: Maddon was essentially a victim of uncontrollable circumstances. Had he been given another chance by the Cubs, it’s likely that he would have succeeded and gotten things turned around in 2020. Now, the Cubs are forced to start from scratch all over again.