Rick Renteria still has plenty of reasons to smile.
Rick Renteria still has plenty of reasons to smile. (USATSI)

The Cubs have decided to let 2014 manager Rick Renteria go, likely (like, almost 100 percent likely) in favor of Joe Maddon. From the perspective of Renteria, it's easy to immediately feel bad for him.

Look, it's a rough spot. He's a baseball lifer and all-around good guy who worked his way slowly up the ladder from the lower levels of the minors to finally get a managerial gig. And he did a great job, bringing along many Cubs youngsters and performing well down the stretch, going 28-27 from Aug. 1 to the end of the season. The team improved by seven games from 2013 and Renteria was set to helm a possible breakout team in 2015.

And then Joe Maddon became a free agent and everything changed.

To be pretty frank and succinct from Renteria's point of view: That sucks.

From an outside perspective, though, let's keep a little perspective here.

Since I'm a positive guy, here are the positives Renteria has going for him that he didn't before the Cubs ever hired him.

1. He's being paid by the Cubs for two more seasons. We don't know the salary, but most managers make seven figures (that's into the millions, people) a year. So he has two more years of that, even if he doesn't get another job in the meantime, which seems very unlikely, so long as he wants one.

2. He now has a year of MLB managing experience on his resume, in which pretty much everyone agrees he did a great job. How many guys have that kind of a line on their resumes? Let's not forget that as he was fired, Renteria got what is probably the greatest reference letter in the history of the world from an employer that terminated an employee. Hop over to the news of Renteria's firing and read Cubs president Theo Epstein gushing about the job Renteria did and essentially apologizing for letting him go.

Basically, it was the nicest and most careful way possible to say "the only reason we fired Rick is because he's not Joe Maddon." That was his only flaw.

3. Other clubs will certainly be more interested in Renteria than before the job he did with the Cubs. He proved he could bring a club along during the course of a season with limited talent. He also showed how well he does with younger players, which is one of the reasons the Cubs hired him in the first place. The results of the season indicated he did it well as manager.

Oh wait, there's already this ...

See? It's only been a few minutes and he's already getting interest. He'll be fine.

On a not-so-positive note ...

4. Guys, life ain't fair.

Sorry, the Cubs aren't in the business of being nice. In any given company, the bosses in a capitalistic society have to make decisions that they believe are in the best interest of the company. Sometimes that means firing really nice people. It happens in every profession. And in most professions, things aren't as rosy as they are for Renteria in the three above points I just made.

Also, from the perspective of the Cubs' front office. Are they actually supposed to pass over a chance that they believe will make them better just to be nice? Is that how business works now?

So while it's understandable to feel bad for Renteria on this day -- and, yes, I do -- let's not go overboard. He's overall had a pretty great year, relatively speaking.