Former MLB manager Joe Maddon ready to return to the dugout: "If somebody had something that really had a meaty component to it, I’m in"

Former MLB manager Joe Maddon is nearly a year removed from his last game with the Los Angeles Angels, but at 69 years old, he is ready to return to the dugout if the right job comes along.

The three-time Manager of the Year and two-time World Series champion spoke of the prospect with Jason Stark and Doug Glanville on "The Athletic Baseball Show":

"If somebody had something that really had a meaty component to it, I'm in. ... But I'm not just out there to shake hands and sing the seventh inning stretch."

While Joe Maddon has long been credited for his work with the Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago Cubs, and Los Angeles Angels, he has not received a call from any of the MLB organizations to have fired their manager since the Angels let Maddon go last June. He said:

"Nobody reached out to me. Japan did. Japan was very interested when it all happened, and I wasn’t ready to go there yet, although I’m such a fan of the baseball culture there. But that’s it. Nobody else has reached out to me. Not at all."

Joe Maddon has long been revered as the man who brought a World Series title back to the Cubs after 108 years in 2016. Before that, his steady and innovative hand helped turn the Rays from a perennial doormat into the consistently successful organization that takes the field today.

He returned to the Angels in 2020, the team in which he had served as a coach from 1994 until taking the Tampa Bay job in 2005, but did not find the success he did with the Rays and Cubs.

In 19 years of managerial work – including two interim stints with the Angels in 1996 and 1999 – he owns a 1,382-1,216 record.

Joe Maddon keeping an eye on any potential openings

Manager Joe Maddon of the Tampa Bay Rays looks on from the dugout.

While Joe Maddon is enjoying his time on the golf course, he's still keeping an eye on an opportunity to return to the dugout. He told Stark:

"I'm observing very closely. I’m watching the game and what’s going on. … I believe that my skill set works with any group, in any decade of the game of baseball, and I’m very happy about that. So, if I get the opportunity, I’m absolutely going to be into it. But to this point, none … and I think the reason why is because I am a little bit outspoken about all this."