Joe Maddon won't return to Rays

Tampa Bay Rays manager, Joe Maddon has opted out of his contract and won't be returning to the team.

Despite his successful run the discussion between Maddon and the team with regards to a new deal did not turn out a positive result and now, he is looking forward to hearing other team's offer for a position in their company.

According to Rays president of baseball operations Matt Silverman "We are turning the page to begin a process to look for a new manager. It's going to be a deliberate and comprehensive search, including both internal and external candidates."

But on the other hand, Maddon confessed that leaving Tampa Bay was also hard for him. He said "I have been doing this for a long time. I have never had this opportunity to research my employment on my terms. Never, never, never. And I think anybody given the same set of circumstances would do the same thing."

This is the second big loss for the team as aside from Maddon, Executive vice president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman left for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Oct. 14.

Silverman said "There's a lot of work to be done this offseason, and this certainly adds to all that's on our plate. The last time we went looking for a manager was nine years ago and we did a pretty good job finding Joe. There's no timetable. It will take us as long as we need to get the right guy. There's no shortcuts here."

When Friedman left the Rays, many were questioning if Friedman will convince Maddon to sign up for the Dodgers. Now that Maddon has left Rays, surely, Friedman will find a way to lure him to the team.

Friedman said in a statement "As I said last week, Joe and I enjoyed a tremendous relationship working together in Tampa Bay and I wish him nothing but the best wherever his next stop will be. However, nothing has changed on our end. Don Mattingly will be our manager next season and hopefully for a long time to come."

On the other hand, Silverman said that he was both surprised and disappointed at the same time after finding out that Maddon is leaving. He said "I believe Joe wanted to be the manager of the Rays long term. That was my intention and Stu's intention. We dove head-first into discussions, but it takes two parties to reach an agreement."

Adding "I'm very comfortable with the financial offers that we made Joe. They were very generous. He listened to those and chose to opt-out."