Major League Baseball has announced that it will not discipline the Cubs in relation to the team’s hiring of former Rays manager Joe Maddon. Tampa Bay had asked the league to look into whether Chicago had tampered with Maddon prior to his departure from the club.
Maddon was at the helm of the Rays for nine campaigns and had a year left on his contract heading into the offseason. But when GM Andrew Friedman left for the Dodgers, a provision in his deal was triggered which gave Maddon the opportunity to opt out of his own contract. Though only one big league team had an open managerial spot at that time (the Twins, who were already well on their way to hiring Paul Molitor), Maddon exercised the clause.
Speculation turned quickly to the Cubs as a landing spot, despite the fact that they had hired skipper Rick Renteria just the year prior. Chicago ultimately fired Renteria, who had two years left on his contract, and signed Maddon to a five-year, $25MM deal.
In short order, Tampa Bay asked the league to open an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Maddon’s departure — specifically, whether he might have had communication with Chicago before deciding to opt out. While a decision had been expected by Opening Day, the league took its time in making its determination. “The investigation produced no finding of a violation of Major League Rule 3(k),” the announcement ultimately concluded.
“The investigation produced no finding of a violation of Major League Rule 3(k),” the announcement ultimately concluded.
Ahhhh… they didn’t want to find any.
Seems like there was an awful a lot of smoke there and when there’s smoke… there’s..
Maybe I’m wrong (it does happen once in a while), but I thought I remember reading that Maddon didn’t even remember the opt-out clause was in his contract until after the Rays front office reminded him of it.
When do the Cubs get compensation for being falsely accused? /S
yes, they get to send Edwin Jackson to Tampa.
When they are.
Must be a squab fan.
6 months too late!
I feel that it’s somewhat odd that Maddon signed with the Cubs so quickly
why? He knew Theo and Hoyer already, they were obviously offering a boatload of money and were very similar to the Rays teams he had so much success with, only more resources… if you were Joe Maddon, what else was there really to think about?
Most teams also like to have managers in place before big free agent signings, so given the time frame of Maddon suddenly being available, wherever he went it would have been a quick courtship.
It took less than a week. Getting all the money taken care of and negotiations done so quickly is somewhat odd
Not if the team making the offer is in a hurry. 5 years, 5 per seems pretty straight forward. If Maddon had already decided he was willing to leave tampa, the only question was whether the Rays could make him a counter offer… which i think we all know they really couldn’t.
at that point it’s just down to a few details, which could be settled over the course of 1 phone call. Managers aren’t like players were you have to carefully structure the deal for luxury tax purposes and they tend not to get a lot of weird quirks, performance clauses or even take a physical.
it might not ‘feel’ normal… but logically there’s no reason why it should have taken longer… not like the Cubs were interviewing other candidates.
I don’t feel it was that strange. I believe this happens with players often as well…things can come together fast. Not every situation is a long drawn out negotiation with competing organizations over a manager/players service. I think we have to keep in mind that we read and hear what the media reports…not always what really goes on. I think the Rays might have just been looking for a goodwill offering. They informed Maddon of his clause…he took the bait and they were able to move on.
Not when they’re making you the richest manager in the game.
Its a small baseball brotherhood…tampering is a blurry line. The Rays reportedly made Maddon aware of the opt out clause themselves. Makes sense for them… It avoids a lame duck manager this season. Keep watching Kevin Cash…I’ve been watching what he’s doing..and he’s solid. Hard losing a manager of Maddons caliber… But it was inevitable. In lieu of no opt out…I’m not sure if I’m the Rays if I wouldn’t have attempted to trade Maddon to Chicago. I feel that’s basically the attempt here…compensation for basically letting him walk away.
Not sure what it takes to please some people. The Rays made the allegation based on nothing more than “gosh, that was fast.” MLB looked into it for six months and found nothing to suggest anything beyond a deal that came together quickly, but some people still aren’t satisfied.
How exactly would people like the Cubs to prove a negative?
Given that managers generally don’t quit their jobs w/o knowing they have another one lined up, tampering is very likely. No finding does not mean no tampering since its very hard to prove. Theo was accused by the Dodgers of tampering with JD Drew, so he is an old pro and not leaving evidence.
Maddon could have made more broadcasting than the Rays were offering and then been the darling of the next off-season. Or he could have locked himself into another long term contract being paid less than half of what he was worth…. yeah, totally illogical for him to leave…
“Given that managers generally don’t quit their jobs w/o knowing they have another one lined up, tampering is very likely”
You are just stabbing in the dark here. Trying to grasp at straws because you want to be enraged even when MLB says there is no reason to be.
How many clubs would see Maddon as an improvement over their current manager though? Maddon had to know he would not be unemployed for long.
If you simply want to believe it happened based on essentially nothing, it’s obvious nobody can dissuade you. Just be cognizant of how ridiculous it is to say that a six month investigation that turns up nothing is less credible than your opinion that you wouldn’t have opted out in his place. How many managers even HAVE opt-outs for you to have made a statement like that?
Maddon was ready to move on. He had done a remarkable job at TB but that franchise is one of the poorer teams in MLB. Maddon had gone as far as he could with the Rays and his stock was high. It’s as simple as that. Several teams would have wanted him and it was the Cubs who had the big money and they had the money and organization Maddon felt he could win with.
But, in all honesty… In a game that’s very fraternal club to club… To truly collude would take quite an event. Word gets around I’m sure…if Maddon even says anything casually about leaving the Rays…it likely goes through a game of telephone.
No surprise.
I thought it was a tacky maneuver by Rays management after all that Maddon had done for that franchise. And all the crap he put up with while there.
I believe much is being made by the press about it. The Rays were actually the ones who informed Maddon of this opt out clause. Perhaps they were hoping he wouldn’t exercise it, so they could avoid him being a lame duck manager by trading him to the Cubs. So much isn’t reported in the media. I just feel that more is being made of it than might be necessary.
For all that we know, Maddon could have inadvertantly tampered himself with the Cubs or someone outside the Rays by speaking about his contract situation in a casual conversation. It might not be as devious as it might seem. Baseball is a small world…people talk
Cover-up.
Proof that the Rays are are credible as statasticians.
Huh? What?
Yeah ok
This is no surprise. There is obviously something fishy about a manager who on one day says “I want to be a Ray for Life” and two weeks later skulks off with his wine bottles and his antiquated ideas for a bigger paycheck.
So what? The Rays ended up with a manager that might prove to be Maddon’s equal or more and can stop dressing like clowns for road trips. The Cubs get a guy who is pretty good at getting the most out of young talent.
And MLB avoids the black eye that “finding a violation” would have given both MLB and the feel good story of 2015. After all, the Cubs aren’t in last place, yet at least. The shiny new toy hasn’t hit a ML dinger yet but isn’t doing too badly despite a pretty impressive strikeout total. And Maddon is getting plenty of airtime which is much more of a tonic for him than the wine in the locker room. Everybody’s happy.
Do you even realize how completely insane you sound right now? Like, no one is going to take you seriously even if you somehow turned out to be right.
What’s insane about it? All I said was, it was fishy.
As for meting out punishment, there was no way MLB was going to even if somebody showed them film of Theo entering Maddon’s RV with bags of money the night before he exercised his opt out.
Everybody’s excited about the Cubs this year because they have a chance to not stink for the first time in a century. Good for them.
Take a pill dude.
The Cubs have stunk for an entire century? That’s some insightful baseball knowledge right there. Most Rays fans gave Maddon a big thank you for what he did for the franchise. You complain about wine bottles?
Apparently, the Rays informed Maddon of his opt out… Not sure why his agent didn’t pick up on that. Rays probably would have rather not had a lame duck manager…but surely would have liked to have traded Maddon to Chicago instead of seeing him walk.
You’re the one convinced of a conspiracy in the face of all evidence to the contrary, despite apparently not even liking Maddon in the first place. So between the two of us, I don’t feel like I’m the one in need of medication.
Everyone except YOU! And if he can make the Cubs winners,I don’t care if he dresses like a court jester.
Feel good story of 2015 might end up being Kevin Cash and the Rays
Their April results have been pleasantly surprising considering how completely all the “experts” wrote them off for 2015. Interesting thing that was reported is that Cash is the first Rays manager to have a winning record in the month of April in their first season. Even Maddon was not able to achieve that.
And if they can hang on and stay close in the division into mid to late May, by which time they should have their complete rotation back (except Matt Moore in July), they could be a difficult obstacle for the rest to overcome.
13 players on the DL at one time. They play a sustainable level of baseball as well. They won’t bludgeon other teams, but when successful they win in a similar fashion than the Giants. AL East beats up in itself. It’ll be fun to watch