From the moment Joe Maddon joined the Chicago Cubs, taking the reins in a Wrigleyville bar five years ago, he talked about winning.
He was the right manager at the right time for a franchise that had experienced mostly terrible timing for more than a century. Right until his time in Chicago ran out.
The Cubs will have a new manager next season after Maddon and president of baseball operations Theo Epstein announced Sunday it was time for a change in the wake of three years of declining results following the franchise’s historic World Series championship in 2016.
The situation was finalized when Maddon and Epstein met in Epstein’s hotel room after Saturday’s 8-6 victory at St. Louis, sharing some wine and reminiscing about their successful five-year partnership.
Maddon’s contract expired after Sunday’s season finale against the Cardinals.
“Change can help you grow,” Epstein said. “And Joe said this change is going to help him grow, and I feel it’s going to help the Cubs grow, too.”
The move begins what could be an active offseason for the Cubs, and the 65-year-old Maddon once again becomes one of baseball’s top free agents.
“I want to continue to do this, whatever’s next out there, I want to be able to be on top of that, too,” Maddon said. “All of it’s been positive, man, and it’s been interesting, entertaining, and quite frankly for this time of year, feeling pretty good, feeling pretty eager about everything, so it’s been a good year.”
While Maddon is out after five seasons, he is tied to Chicago forever after managing the Cubs to the franchise’s first title in 108 years.
Chicago also made it to the NL Championship Series in 2015 and 2017, but it lost in the wild-card round last October and tumbled out of the playoff race altogether this year. Weighed down by a puzzling discrepancy between their 51 wins at Wrigley Field and 33 road victories, the Cubs finished third in the NL Central.
PIRATES: Pittsburgh fired Manager Clint Hurdle before its regular-season finale against Cincinnati, following a stunning second-half collapse that dropped Pittsburgh to the bottom of the National League Central and included a series of off-the-field issues.
Pittsburgh finished 69-93, including 25-48 since the All-Star break.
Hurdle went 735-720 in nine seasons with Pittsburgh, helping the franchise emerge from 20 years of losing to reach the playoffs three straight years from 2013-15. The Pirates never advanced past the Division Series and have had three losing seasons in their last four years. Hurdle had two years left on an extension he signed in 2017.
Pittsburgh General Manager Neal Huntington called it “an extremely difficult decision” for the organization.
Bench Coach Tom Prince filled in for Hurdle as manager in the season finale, and Huntington will explore both internal and external options. Prince and special assistant Jeff Banister – who took the Texas Rangers to the playoffs in 2013-14 before returning to Pittsburgh – both have deep ties to the organization.
LEADERS: Tim Anderson became only the third Chicago White Sox player to win an American League batting title, and injured Milwaukee star Christian Yelich wound up as the National League’s first repeat batting champion in two decades.
Anderson went 0 for 2 Sunday and finished at .335, eight points ahead of the Yankees’ DJ LeMahieu. Anderson joined Luke Appling (1936, 1943) and Frank Thomas (1997) as White Sox batting champions.
Yelich wound up at .3292, just ahead of Arizona’s Ketel Marte’s .3286, as neither made it to the season’s final weekend. Yelich’s season ended when he broke his right kneecap by fouling a pitch of it on Sept. 10. Marte has not played since Sept. 17 because of lower back inflammation.
Yelich won at .326 last year. He’s the NL’s first back-to-back batting leader since Colorado’s Larry Walker in 1998-99, which started a run of three titles in four years. The closest NL race was in 2003, when Albert Pujols of St. Louis beat Todd Helton of Colorado .35871 to .35849.
Pete Alonso of the Mets became the first rookie since the modern era began in 1900 to lead the major leagues in home runs, hitting 53 – the most ever by a rookie. Jorge Soler hit his 48th Sunday to become the Royals’ first home run champion. He finished three ahead of the Angels’ Mike Trout, who last played Sept. 7 because of a right foot injury that required surgery.
Washington’s Anthony Rendon led the major leagues with 126 RBI and Jose Abreu of the White Sox topped the AL with 123.
Houston’s Justin Verlander led the major leagues with 21 wins, and teammate Gerrit Cole earned his 20th victory on the final day by winning his 16th straight decision. Boston’s Eduardo Rodríguez was in line for his 20th win before Matt Barnes blew an eighth-inning lead Sunday against Baltimore.
Cole led the major leagues with 326 strikeouts and Verlander had 300, the first teammates to reach that figure in the same season since Arizona’s Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling in 2002. Cole had 21 double-digit strikeout games, the most since Johnson in 2001, and became the first pitcher to strike out 300 with no complete games.
Jacob deGrom of the Mets led the NL for the first time with 255 strikeouts.
Hyun-Jin Ryu of the Los Angeles Dodgers won his first ERA title at 2.32. Cole led the AL at 2.50, just ahead of Verlander’s 2.58.
n Major league batters finished with 6,776 home runs, shattering the previous record of 6,105 set two years ago.
Strikeouts increased for the 12th consecutive season – from 41,207 last year to 42,823.
SUNDAY’S GAMES
CARDINALS 9, CUBS 0: St. Louis won the NL Central for the first time since 2015, using Jack Flaherty’s arm and Matt Carpenter’s bat to beat visiting Chicago.
Flaherty tossed seven impressive innings, and Carpenter led a three-homer attack with a three-run drive to help St. Louis advance to the NL Division Series, starting Thursday at Atlanta.
The Cardinals began the day with a one-game lead over Milwaukee. The Brewers will play at Washington in the NL wild-card game on Tuesday, with the winner facing Los Angeles in the NLDS.
DODGERS 9, GIANTS 0: Bruce Bochy bid an emotional farewell following 21/2 decades in what is certainly a Hall of Fame managerial career, finishing with a defeat to the Dodgers as fans remained in their seats long after the game ended to celebrate a man who helped bring San Francisco its only three World Series championships.
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