Cubs to hire Joe Maddon

The Cubs will hire former Rays manager Joe Maddon, which means that Rick Renteria will be out after one year.

This doesn't shift the balance of power in the NL Central too much, but it's something. Now Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer will have a field manager who's very much on the same page they are, and as we saw this year with the excellent working relationship between the Pirates' front office and field staff, there's value in that. It's likely that in five years, most teams will have managers who are both enthusiastic about sabermetric strategies and very competent at deploying them, but for now it's a significant edge. Maddon is also a good fit for a big-market team like the Cubs because he works well with the media.

Anyway, Maddon's hire is unconfirmed for now, perhaps in part because, as MLBTR notes, it's generally seen as bad form to make major announcements like this during the World Series. Maddon will surely be one of the most highly paid managers in baseball, not that he doesn't deserve it.