Greg Maddux To Return To Cubs
Greg Maddux is going back where he started, deciding to sign with the Chicago Cubs, The Associated Press learned Tuesday night.
The four-time Cy Young pitching award winner agreed to a $24 million, three-year deal with the Cubs, rejoining the team that gave him his start in the majors, a source close the negotiations said on condition of anonymity.
The Cubs can void the final year of the deal if Maddux doesn't pitch a preset number of innings in 2005.
The deal is pending a physical examination, but the 37-year-old Maddux is expected to report Wednesday with the rest of the Cubs pitchers and catchers. Maddux, who spent the last 11 years with the Atlanta Braves, is the last major free agent to agree to a deal.
Chicago general manager Jim Hendry wasn't available for comment late Tuesday, but the addition of Maddux is a huge boost for the Cubs, giving them one of the best rotations in the game. Maddux will join Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Matt Clement and Carlos Zambrano - a foursome that took the Cubs within five outs of the World Series a year ago.
Maddux turns 38 in April and may not be the same pitcher he was in his youth, but the four-time National League Cy Young winner is still one of baseball's best. Despite a slow start he was 16-11 with a 3.96 ERA last season - his 16th straight year with at least 15 wins. He is just 11 wins shy of 300, and his 289 wins are second to Roger Clemens among active pitchers.
In his 18-year career, Maddux is 289-163 with a 2.89 ERA.
Bringing Maddux back may also go a long way toward soothing the angst of the Cubs faithful, who never forgave the team for letting him go in the first place. Maddux spent his first seven seasons in Chicago, going 95-75 and winning the first of his four straight Cy Young awards. But he left after the 1992 season in a money dispute and went to Atlanta, where he developed into one of the great pitchers of his era, a control freak who mixed speeds and locations.
He was 194-88 with a 2.63 ERA during his 11-year stint in Atlanta, setting an NL record for most consecutive innings without a walk and becoming the poster child for consistency with his streak of 15-win seasons.
He also helped make the Braves the dominant team in the NL. Atlanta won a division title every year he was there, as well as the 1995 World Series. The Cubs, meanwhile, wallowed in mediocrity - or worse. They've had only five winning seasons since he left, and didn't make the playoffs again until 1998.
Going to a team that could win was believed to be high on Maddux's list of priorities, and he'll find the Cubs much different than what he's seen from afar these last few years.
Dusty Baker brought a new attitude in his first season, and the Cubs responded with their first division title since 1989. They were on the verge of going to the World Series for the first time since 1945 until a meltdown against Florida in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series. Florida rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win the series.
The Cubs should be even better this year. Hendry upgraded the bullpen, adding LaTroy Hawkins and Kent Mercker. He also traded for Gold Glove first baseman Derrek Lee, and bolstered the bench with Todd Walker and Todd Hollandsworth.
By Nancy Armour and Ronald Blum