A recent and specious report indicated that uber-successful, uber-popular Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon, who has another year left on his contract, was imperiled if his team did not make its fourth consecutive deep postseason run this year.
Reading that sentence aloud, you should note how silly it is. Or, as Maddon put it so eloquently when asked what he thought: “That is actually dumb.”
Maddon’s boss also responded to the report, and, although he didn’t drop an “actually dumb” in there, he may as well have.
“Joe is a terrific leader and partner, and we are thrilled with his job performance the last four years,” Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein told the Sun-Times. “Since 2015, the Cubs have the most regular-season wins and the most postseason wins in all of baseball; it’s hard to have a better track record than that. Joe is clearly in good standing with the organization. We are focused on trying to win another championship and will not address Joe’s contract status until there is reason to do so.”
In other words, it’s completely silly to speculate that Maddon may be in jeopardy at a this time of the year with his track record.
Yes, his contract situation will have to be resolved, preferably in the offseason so that he doesn’t begin the 2019 season managing as a lame duck. But there will be time for those discussions after this season ends. Talking about it now is actually dumb.