After Aroldis Chapman criticized the way he was used by Joe Maddon during the playoffs, the Chicago Cubs manager defended his actions.
The Chicago Cubs don’t win the World Series without the efforts of closer Aroldis Chapman, but that didn’t stop the All-Star reliever from throwing his former manager under the bus. Chapman criticized Cubs manager Joe Maddon for the way he used him during the playoffs.
Chapman has made his career out of working exclusively in the ninth inning, but after the Cubs traded their top prospect, Gleyber Torres, in a package to get the flame-throwing reliever, the Cubs made sure to get as much out of their investment as they could. This meant using Chapman before the ninth inning and often with runners on base to get out of sticky jams.
Shortly after signing a five-year deal to rejoin the New York Yankees, Chapman said he didn’t agree with the way Maddon used him
“Personally, I don’t agree with the way he used me, but he is the manager and he has the strategy, Chapman said via ESPN.”
Maddon has never shied away from speaking his mind and didn’t hold back when he defended his use of Chapman.
“Would I do it differently? No,” Maddon told the New York Post. “There is no Game 7 without winning Game 6. And there is no Game 8 if you don’t win Game 7. That’s why you do what you have to do.
“I appreciate what he said. If he feels that way, he did not tell me about that at the moment or after the moment,” Maddon continued. “At the end of the day, man, we would not have won without him, and I appreciate everything he did. But I promise everything we did do, we did with his consent by talking to him prior to the game.”
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Had the Cubs not won in extra innings of Game 7, Chapman’s criticism would have been shared by millions of Cubs fans who first-guessed Maddon’s use of Chapman during the postseason. Thankfully, those Cubs fans can reflect on a World Series championship to get through a frigid winter as they wave goodbye to a closer they are happy to see leave via free agency.