Joseph John Maddon (born February 8, 1954) is an American former professional baseball manager. He has managed the Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago Cubs, and Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB).
After playing and coaching in the minor leagues, Maddon began his MLB coaching career with the Angels in 1994 and served under managers Buck Rodgers, Marcel Lachemann, John McNamara, Terry Collins, and Mike Scioscia. He served two stints as interim manager during this time. He managed the Rays from 2006 through 2014, winning the 2008 American League pennant.
After opting out of his contract following the 2014 season, Maddon joined the Cubs. He led them to the 2015 National League Championship Series and was named the 2015 National League Manager of the Year. In 2016, Maddon managed the Cubs to their first World Series title since 1908. He managed the Cubs through 2019 and managed the Angels from 2020 to 2022.
Contents
Early life and career
Maddon grew up in Hazleton, Pennsylvania,
the son of an Italian father, Joseph Anthony Maddon (who shortened the family name from Maddonini), and a Polish mother, Albina Klocek, Maddon grew up in an apartment over his father's plumbing shop. His father died in 2002.
Maddon attended Lafayette College, where he played baseball and football. He is a member of Zeta Psi fraternity. He received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Lafayette College on September 2, 2010.
Maddon began his professional career playing in Minor League Baseball as a catcher, signing with the California Angels organization as a free agent in 1975. Maddon never advanced higher than Class A, in which he played for four seasons. He began his career for the Quad Cities Angels in 1976, hitting .294 in 50 games and 163 at bats. He followed up with two seasons for the Salinas Angels and a final season with the Santa Clara Padres. In his four seasons, he never had more than 180 at bats in a season, and the most home runs he ever hit was three for the Salinas Angels in 1977. Overall, he hit .267 with 5 home runs in 514 at bats.
Coaching/managerial career
California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (1975–2005)
In 1979, after spending four seasons trying to make it as a catcher in the Angels organization, Maddon decided to give up his playing career and become a coach. He started as a scout and would continue on to such positions as manager in the Angels farm system and Minor League roving hitting instructor.
As a minor league manager, he had a 279–339 (.451) record in six seasons. He managed in the minors from 1981 to 1986, each team having a losing record. His stops included managing the Idaho Falls Angels of the Rookie League (1981), the Class A Salem Angels (1982–1983), Class A Peoria Chiefs (1984), and the Class AA Midland Angels (1985–1986). After serving as Minor League roving instructor from 1987 to 1993, Maddon was promoted to the big league club as a coach.
Maddon served as a major league coach for the Angels from 1994 to 2005. He held such positions as first base coach, bench coach, and interim manager on three occasions following the hospitalization of John McNamara in 1996, the suspension of Terry Collins in 1998, and Collins' eventual departure in 1999. He finished with a combined record of 27 wins and 24 losses as interim manager. He also served under Marcel Lachemann from 1993 to 1994. While he served as bench coach under McNamara and Collins, he rotated positions often. He finally found stability when the Angels hired Mike Scioscia in 1999. He served as Scioscia's bench coach from 2000 to 2005, winning a World Series ring in 2002. By the time Maddon left Anaheim, he had spent 31 years overall with the Angels organization. Maddon was considered a candidate for the Boston Red Sox manager job in 2004, which went to Terry Francona.
Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays (2006–2014)
On November 15, 2005, Maddon was hired to manage the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Rays went 121–197 (.381) in Maddon's first two seasons. The Rays were in yet another re-building phase, this time under the management of General Manager Andrew Friedman. Tampa Bay held the lowest payroll in baseball at $44 million. They had yet to have a winning season but were hopeful due to the development of young homegrown stars David Price, Evan Longoria, James Shields and B. J. Upton. Unlike his predecessor, Lou Piniella, Maddon preached patience in developing a young core of players while enduring back to back 90+ game losing seasons.
In 2008, Maddon guided the newly renamed Rays to the first winning season and division title in franchise history. He led a team of young players that won the American League East over the heavily favored New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Maddon's team recorded the franchise's first playoff series victory in the 2008 American League Division Series (ALDS) vs. the Chicago White Sox by 3–1, and followed with a 4-games-to-3 triumph over the rival Red Sox in the 2008 American League Championship Series (ALCS). This was the first World Series appearance for the Rays, in which Tampa Bay held home-field advantage against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies won the World Series in five games. Maddon won the American League Manager of the Year Award. He also received the Chuck Tanner Major League Baseball Manager of the Year Award.
On May 25, 2009, the Tampa Bay Rays and Maddon agreed to a contract extension that would keep him manager of the Rays through 2012. He had been in the final year of his initial contract with the team. The Rays stated that there was "never a question" on whether to keep Maddon after the conclusion of the 2009 season.
On July 14, 2009, Maddon managed the American League All Star team to a 4–3 victory. Controversy accompanied his failure to pick second baseman Ian Kinsler as a reserve, despite Kinsler having narrowly come in second in the fan voting, the player voting, and the "Sprint Final Vote" competition. To replace fellow second baseman Dustin Pedroia, Maddon instead chose Tampa Bay's first baseman Carlos Peña. Similarly, to replace Longoria, Maddon chose Chone Figgins of the Angels.
When MLB ordered in April 2010 that managers and coaches wear the official team jacket or approved Majestic pullover over their jersey, and not "hoodies", Maddon complained that "it's almost like a security blanket for me. Managing without a hoodie on a cool night could be very disconcerting. Furthermore, I think it's wrong." MLB reversed their decision a few days later.
Chicago Cubs (2015–2019)
Maddon managed the Chicago Cubs from 2015 to 2019, breaking the Cubs' 108-year World Series Championship drought in his second year with a 4–3 series win over the Cleveland Indians. His .581 winning percentage is the most for a Cubs manager since Frank Chance, and his 19 playoff victories as manager are a team record, as are the team's four consecutive playoff berths from 2015 to 2018. Following the Cubs' quick exit from the 2018 playoffs, the Cubs opted not to give Maddon an extension on his five-year contract, which the team allowed to expire after Chicago failed to make the playoffs the following year.
On May 14, 2015, Maddon logged his 800th managerial win in a 6–5 home victory over the New York Mets, placing him eighth among active managers. In June, on a road trip to play the Mets, Maddon brought in a magician to perform in the Cubs clubhouse. The Cubs had lost five straight games and it was something Maddon had done before with the Rays. At the conclusion of the first half of the season, the Cubs held a record of 47–40, good for third place in the highly contested National League Central division. The Cubs had finished in last place for three consecutive seasons.
After coming out sluggishly after the All Star Break, Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia Phillies no-hit the Cubs at Wrigley Field on July 25. Following a sweep by the Phillies, the team with the worst record in baseball, the Cubs went on a nine-game winning streak, and at the time held the best road record in the Majors. The Cubs continued their hot streak throughout the second half of the season, which included a no-hitter by Jake Arrieta on August 30 in Los Angeles. On September 26, following a San Francisco Giants loss to the Oakland Athletics, the Cubs clinched their first postseason berth since 2008. They finished the season with 97 wins, an improvement of 24 over 2014 and their first 97-win season since 2008.
In the National League Wild Card Game, the Cubs defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates by a score of 4–0 at PNC Park on a complete game shutout from Arrieta, advancing to the National League Division Series (NLDS) to face the St. Louis Cardinals. The win marked the Cubs' first postseason victory since Game 4 of the 2003 National League Championship Series (NLCS). After losing game 1 in St. Louis, the Cubs went on to win three straight, winning the NLDS at Wrigley Field. This was the Cubs' first ever postseason clinch at Wrigley Field. The Cubs played the Mets in the NLCS, but lost in a four game sweep. After the season, Maddon won the National League Manager of the Year Award.
Return to the Los Angeles Angels (2020–2022)
On October 16, 2019, it was announced that Maddon would be returning to the Angels as manager for the 2020 season. He signed a three-year deal.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 season was shortened to 60 games. In addition, the playoffs were expanded to include eight teams from each league instead of the regular five. Despite this, the Angels finished the season at 26–34 to finish in fourth place in the AL West, missing the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season.
Maddon led the Angels in the 2021 season, his first 162-game season as manager for the team. In February 2021, Maddon announced that he would allow Shohei Ohtani to both hit and pitch following his 2019 Tommy John surgery recovery and 2020 setback. Maddon and the Angels adopted a 6-man rotation to allow Ohtani to pitch once every 7 days and serve as designated hitter in-between. On April 4, 2021, Maddon let Ohtani bat for himself as a starting pitcher for the first time in his career. It was the first time in Angels history that a manager had waived the designated hitter spot and was the first time across the American League since the Tampa Bay Rays did so on May 17, 2009, an instance where Maddon himself accidentally submitted an incorrect lineup card. Just before the 2021 All-Star Game, Maddon consulted American League team manager Kevin Cash about having Ohtani both hit and pitch in the game.
The Angels finished the 2021 season with a 77–85 record, placing 4th in their division and missing the playoffs. Maddon made 6 successful managerial challenges out of 20 attempts, a rate of 30%. He was ejected from 3 games. The Angels hit sacrifice bunts at a 2.0% rate, the highest under Maddon's management since the 2014 Rays and similar to the small ball that the 2002 Angels utilized when Maddon was an assistant coach.
A month before the start of the 2022 season, Maddon told the media that he was considering the possibility of moving veteran superstar Mike Trout out of center field to a corner outfield spot in an effort to prevent injuries. In the hypothetical move, Trout would have been moved out of center field for the first time since 2013 in favor of Brandon Marsh, a former top prospect who spent time at the position during Trout's 2021 injury. Less than 24 hours after floating the idea, Maddon met with Trout and ultimately decided that he would keep him in center field.
Managerial record
As of the 2022 season
Uniform number
Maddon wears the unusual uniform #70. He has said that his preferred number used to be #20, but that he lost that number when future Hall-of-Famer Don Sutton came to the Angels. He was then randomly assigned #70 and declared that he would never change it so that his number would never be taken from him again.
Charitable organizations
Maddon's organization, Respect 90 Foundation, hosts a charity golf tournament annually in his hometown of Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Respect 90 and Maddon also sponsor a charity boxing event in Chicago annually. The Respect 90 Foundation raises funds to benefit inner city youth.
In 2017, Joe Maddon and his neighbor Jill Kelley hosted a Gasparilla party for wounded veterans.
Personal life
Maddon has two children from a previous marriage and has five grandchildren through it. Maddon married his second wife in 2008.