Joe Maddon may have won the A.L. Manager of the Year award this past week, but it appears that story has already gotten old. Maddon has still been in the news for the past few days, but for an entirely different reason: his contract situation.
While certain Rays employees work without contracts -- like GM Andrew Friedman -- Maddon is currently in the final season of a three-year contract. The terms of the contract are unknown, but it is believed that Maddon will receive around $1.4 million this upcoming season. He has expressed interest in remaining with the Rays, stating that he's in a perfect situation and can't see himself moving on:
"A better place to work? I don't think one exists in baseball," he said. "My goal has been to make the Rays into the next century's Yankees, Cardinals, Red Sox." (Joe Smith, Tampa Bay Times)
And despite rumors about other teams being interested in Maddon, the Rays seem to want to lock Maddon up to another long term deal. From Jon Heyman:
#rays hopeful to extend joe maddon. Team prez matt silverman: "I think he's going to be our manager a long time."
Now that's a signing I can certainly get behind.