Joe Maddon's latest MLB critique is especially relevant for the Cubs, Craig Counsell

Never one to shy away from a tough conversation or rocking the boat, Joe Maddon, who managed the Chicago Cubs from 2015 to 2019 and led the team to a World Series and three straight NLCS appearances, is back in the news this week after speaking to Jayson Jenks of The Athletic (subscription required) about something he feels is a big problem in today's game.

If you ask Maddon, managers and coaches in today's game have less of an impact than their predecessors. Why? Because they've been largely stripped of autonomy, as front offices become more and more involved in the day-to-day operations of teams, relying heavily on data and analytics.

This isn't exactly a new take from Maddon, who has been pushing back against the heavy-handed nature of baseball operations leaders for several years now, but his comments (which are worth checking out if you've got a few minutes), feel particularly relevant to a team like the Cubs.

Why? Because it was pretty clear Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins believed luring Craig Counsell away from the NL Central rival Milwaukee Brewers was a true franchise-altering move. They made him the game's highest-paid manager in the fall of 2023, inking him to a five-year, $40 million contract that set a new high-water mark in the game.

But after firing David Ross and bringing in Counsell, the Cubs saw no improvement, mirroring the same 83-79 record from the year prior. It was a damning indictment of the front office, which continued to piece-meal the roster together instead of seriously investing in top-tier talent and really moving the needle in the right direction.

Maddon says this trend of hiring doers rather than thinkers isn't an MLB-exclusive problem. More and more, leadership teams develop their plans and simply bring in folks to execute them as-is, instead of having the opportunity to shape them. With a tidal wave of data available to all of us on a daily basis, it's easy to throw in the towel and always trust in the numbers - but Maddon believe the game has lost a critical element in the process.

Managers know when their guys are feeling good or need a day off. They (at least in an ideal world) understand recent trends that might fly in the face of the larger data set. But in today's game, there's little opportunity to adjust from the dugout, because the expectation for managers is to follow the plan laid out by the front office.

Outspoken as ever, Maddon has a point. But if this is true, the bigger question for the shot-callers in the offices at Gallagher Way is simple: does having the game's highest-paid manager make the difference they think it does if they handcuff his decision-making? Again, I'm not saying that's the case, but it's definitely a worthwhile thought exercise one month into a critical must-win season.