2015 NL Manager of the Year: The case for the Cubs' Joe Maddon
Cubs manager Joe Maddon is one of the three finalists for the NL Manager of the Year award. Here's the case for him winning.
By
Matt Snyder
•
2 min read
Major League Baseball will announce the winner of the 2015 National League Manager of the Year live on MLB Network at 6 p.m. ET Tuesday evening. In light of that, we're gonna make the case for each of the three candidates. Here's the case for Joe Maddon. He is up against Mike Matheny of the Cardinals and Terry Collins of the Mets.
After five straight fifth-place finishes in the NL Central, the 2015 Cubs under new manager Joe Maddon looked primed to improve greatly upon their 73 wins in 2014. Many predicted they'd make the playoffs as a fringe second Wild Card contender, and that's what they did.
No one, however, predicted the Cubs would win 97 games, matching the most in franchise history since winning 98 in 1945. [NOTE: We aren't mentioning the postseason because votes are cast at the conclusion of the regular season.]
It wasn't just the 24-win improvement in 2015 that should propel Maddon to winning NL Manager of the Year, of course. There was so much more.
This Cubs nucleus hadn't been around the concept of winning, and Maddon brought a complete culture change to the locker room. He found ways to keep them loose throughout the season, such as a magician, a petting zoo on the field at Wrigley and pajama night, which hilariously came the night of Jake Arrieta's no-hitter in Los Angeles.
Maddon had talent, sure, but he was the man in charge of bringing along so much young talent. Rookies Kris Bryant (147 starts), Addison Russell (137 starts), Jorge Soler (117 starts) and Kyle Schwarber (53 starts) got significant playing time. Most teams with four starting rookies are in the middle of a rebuild, not winning 97 games.
Past that, Maddon had to juggle the back of the rotation and an inconsistent bullpen through much of the season. He even got creative with a few "bullpen games" down the stretch where he didn't even use a starting pitcher.
Perhaps Maddon's best move of all was benching Starlin Castro in early August, which moved Russell to shortstop. The Cubs went 35-17 with Russell starting at short after the move. Not only did Russell provide far better defense at short than Castro, but once Castro was given back playing time -- at second base -- he hit .353/.374/.594 in 140 plate appearances from his first post-benching start to the end of the season.
Add everything together and Maddon is an outstanding choice as NL Manager of the Year.
