Joe Maddon’s next baseball honor could come from Cooperstown.
The former Angels manager was named Monday as one of eight candidates for the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2027, landing on the Hall’s Contemporary Baseball Era ballot for managers, executives and umpires. The committee looks at figures whose biggest impact came since 1980.
Maddon, 72, is in a group that also includes managers Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy and Lou Piniella, plus executives Sandy Alderson, Brian Sabean, Ted Turner and Bill White. The 16-member Contemporary Baseball Era Committee will cast its votes Dec. 6 during baseball’s Winter Meetings in San Diego.
For Angels fans, Maddon’s name still carries plenty of weight. His second run with the club ended in June 2022 after a 12-game losing streak, but his ties to the organization go back much farther than that. He spent more than 30 years in the Angels system in coaching and minor league roles before rising to Mike Scioscia’s bench coach.
He was also part of the staff when the Angels won their only World Series title in 2002. Before that, Maddon had already filled in as the club’s interim manager during parts of the 1996 and 1999 seasons.
His career took off once he left Anaheim for Tampa Bay in 2006. Maddon turned the Rays into a contender and led them to their first winning season and American League pennant in 2008. He won American League Manager of the Year honors in 2008 and 2011.
Then came the defining chapter. After taking over the Cubs in 2015, Maddon won his third Manager of the Year award that season and guided Chicago to four straight postseason appearances from 2015 through 2018. His biggest accomplishment came in 2016, when he led the Cubs to their first World Series championship in 108 years.
He returned to the Angels before the 2020 season, but that reunion never produced a winning record or a trip to the postseason.
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