Joe Maddon spent most of the summer talking about how much he wanted to manage the Chicago Cubs in 2020. It turns out he was either playing a PR game or had a change of heart later in the season.

However it came about, Maddon recently spoke at a public event and, according to the Tampa Bay Times, made it clear that he's happy to be away from the Windy City.

The former Cubs manager was talking at his annual Thanksmas charity event and he shed some light on how becoming the manager of the Los Angeles Angels came about. He told the gathered media the Angels was the team he wanted to manage all along:

"I wanted the Angels to know in advance when this all became ready that I would like to go there, and I also wanted the other teams to know I don’t want to interview unless this doesn’t work out because I thought it would be disingenuous to both sides."

The feeling appeared to be mutual.

The Angels did not have an opening at their manager's spot until the Chicago Cubs said goodbye to Maddon. Once those two sides decided to part, the Angels fired their current manager.

Once the opening was forged, most people around baseball believed Joe Maddon was the only manager the team was going to interview. He was hired just a few days after he became unemployed and Los Angeles created that opening.

Obvious to both sides

While it was obvious, to most people watching the situation, that Maddon was going to L.A. his admission about the Chicago Cubs surprised some. Because he spent the summer talking about how much he wanted to come back, some believed he was effectively fired by Theo Epstein once the season was over.

To hear the former Cubs' manager tell it, it really was a mutual parting of ways. When it got down to the last couple of days it was really obvious to both sides. I didn’t want to be back either. It was more of a bilateral than a unilateral decision.’’

The question here is - how much of that kind of comment came about after the fact?

Some analysts have wondered whether or not he wanted out, or whether he's saving face after being pushed out.

Chicago Cubs wasted no time

The same summer that Joe Maddon was making it clear he wanted to stay in Chicago, the Cubs' front office made it clear, to most observers, that they were not going to bring him back. Reports that he had lost the clubhouse surfaced early and often.

Epstein himself talked, before the season began, about how he didn't like the way the clubhouse atmosphere was being tended to.

Comments, as the Cubs fell out of the playoff race, had many reporters believing the relationship was permanently damaged. Joe Maddon recently claimed neither side wanted to work with the other anymore. It was made especially clear by the way the 2019 season for the Chicago Cubs came to an end.
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