Tampa Bay Rays Confident Joe Maddon Will Stay

The Tampa Bay Rays and new President Matt Silverman plan on keeping one of the league’s best manager’s around for the 2015 season and hopefully more.

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Joe Maddon isn’t going anywhere anytime soon according to new Tampa Bay Rays‘ President Matt Silverman, via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported the story.

“It’s hard to imagine this club not being managed by Joe,” Silverman said. “We want him here, Joe says he wants to be here, those are the ingredients for another deal. We’ve had several so far, and I’m hopeful that we’re going to have another one.”

Maddon and former Rays’ President Andrew Friedman brought the Rays from a laughingstock to a consistent, American League playoff contender. The Rays had six consecutive winning seasons from 2008 to 2013 which included a trip to the World Series.

With Friedman off to the LA Dodgers, several people think Maddon should follow, including ESPN’s Buster Olney:

LAD and TB should cut a deal for Joe Maddon right now, and move forward. No sense in having that situation hang over Mattingly in 2015.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) October 14, 2014

Although the 2014 season didn’t end the way the Rays and their fans wanted, they were able to build for the future with the David Price trade and still have stars like Evan Longoria, Wil Myers, and Matt Moore.

Maddon enters the final season of his contract in 2015 but expects contract talks to begin relatively soon.

The crafty manager also stated that he wants to remain in Tampa, according to Bill Shaikin:

Joe Maddon: "I want to continue to be a Ray, absolutely." Story soon at http://t.co/q38H0y6hKv. #Dodgers
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) October 14, 2014

Only time will tell, but the Rays would be foolish to let Joe Maddon go.

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