ST. LOUIS – Cubs manager Joe Maddon has taken meetings all week with players checking in on him and his status. And his phone is been especially busy with old friends from home and longtime baseball pals.
“Obviously, they read a lot of different things,” he said. “I get back to them as quickly as I can.”
He might finally have an answer for all of them by Sunday morning.
Maddon and team president Theo Epstein planned to meet Saturday night about whether the manager will be back for a sixth season with the club, and an announcement is expected Sunday.
Asked if the meeting might involve cocktails, Maddon said, “Probably, yeah. Not that I need any more of those, man. I’m good.”
Maddon, 65, has said repeatedly that he wants to come back to Chicago, where he managed four consecutive playoff teams, including the 2016 team that finally won its historic World Series.
He said he wants to manage five more seasons, whether that’s with the Cubs or someone else.
“We all have a huge amount of respect for Joe and what he’s done here,” Kyle Schwarber said. “If he comes back, it’s great. If he decides to move on, we wish him the best. But he’s done a lot of dang good here, and you can’t take that away.”
That included trips to the National League Championship Series his first three seasons, the franchise’s first World Series title in more than a century, more victories than anyone in baseball his first four seasons, the second-highest winning percentage (.582) of any manager in franchise history with at least 130 games and a franchise-record 19 postseason victories.
“No matter what happens… he should be revered as a legend in this down for a long time,” veteran pitcher Jon Lester said.
If he’s fired, Maddon likely won’t be unemployed long. The Mets and possibly Phillies are expected to have managerial openings, and either would seem a strong fit for the three-time manager of the year.
His status has been on shaky ground since November, when Epstein said he planned table any decision on whether to offer Maddon an extension until this season played out.
Maddon is in the final, $6 million season of a five-year deal.
“When you’re in the position I’m in – and I’ve been there before for two weeks – you do have choices, which is unusual,” said Maddon, who exercised an opt-out clause in his contract with Tampa Bay in October 2014 to become a free agent.
The Cubs swooped in, kicked manager Rick Renteria to the curb and hired Maddon.
“We’ll talk it all the way through,” Maddon said of the planned conversation with Epstein. “Listen, we have a wonderful relationship. We work really well together so we’ll talk about it some more and see where it goes.”
Players from pre-Maddon holdovers such as Anthony Rizzo to newcomers such as Nick Castellanos expressed support for the manager who pulled out all his zoo-animal, magician and mime tricks his first year or two with the club then backed off as the young core matured.
He has more than once in the last week said his time with the Cubs has been “a blast” and the achievements of the team in that time not lost on him.
“I’ve respected and love the time I’ve been here with him,” Lester said. “I’ve loved what he’s done for this organization. I’ve loved what he’s done for our guys. “If that means another five years here, great. I won’t be here that long. But I think he’s done a great job of managing not only the people that have come through these clubhouse doors but the team out on the field day in and day out and put us in the best position to succeed.
“That’s all you can ask from a manager is to be put in situations he thinks you’re going to succeed and that the team’s going to succeed, and I think Joe’s done that 99.9 percent of the time since he’s been here.”
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