Joe Maddon’s departure was not popular

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in fans from each team. Cubs fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

Joe Maddon won’t be managing the Chicago Cubs in 2020 and beyond. This, you already know, and we have covered it here in several articles.

It’s also a question we posed to SB Nation FanPulse members in the latest survey. 61 percent of members surveyed said “No” to the question, “Do you approve of Joe Maddon’s contract not being renewed?” 39 percent said yes.

There are reasonable arguments on both sides of that question. But Theo Epstein made his choice, and now we await word on Joe’s successor. I say “successor” rather than “replacement,” because no one can really “replace” what Joe Maddon did for the Cubs franchise.

Joe finished with a 70 percent approval vote in the latest survey. His highest approval percentage was 93 percent, in the very first vote, and the lowest, 61 percent. The latter happened in the second-to-last vote of the season.

Here’s the team confidence votes throughout 2019, annotated with a couple of key moments of the season:

And here is the national question asked of FanPulse members across all 30 MLB sites:

Personally, I like the one-and-done game. It’s why there was such a heated race between the Brewers and Cardinals (and until that nine-game losing streak, the Cubs) to win the N.L. Central. You can be sure that the Brewers would have much rather been meeting the Braves beginning Thursday than to have had to face (and lose to) the Nationals Tuesday evening. It puts a real premium on winning your division.

This was the final FanPulse survey for 2019 with Cubs-specific questions. FanPulse members will still get national questions through the postseason, and then this will resume when the 2020 season begins. You can still have your voice be heard — the link to sign up is at the top of this post. Thanks to those who participated this season.