List of Chicago Cubs managers


The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. The Cubs are members of the National League Central Division in Major League Baseball. In baseball, the head coach of a team is called the manager, or more formally, the field manager. The duties of the team manager include team strategy and leadership on and off the field. Since their inception as the White Stockings in 1876, the Cubs have employed 61 managers. The franchise's first manager was Baseball Hall of Famer Albert Spalding, who helped the White Stockings become the first champions of the newly formed National League.
After co-managing with Silver Flint during the 1879 Chicago White Stockings season, Hall of Famer Cap Anson began an 18-year managerial tenure in 1880, the longest in franchise history. Under Anson, the team won five more NL pennants — in 1880, 1881, 1882, 1885 and 1886—tying the 1885 World Series and losing the 1886 World Series in the process. Anson won 1,283 games as the White Stockings' manager, the most in franchise history. After taking over for Hall of Fame manager Frank Selee in 1905, Frank Chance — another Hall of Famer — managed the team through the 1912 season. During his tenure, the franchise won four more NL pennants in 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1910, winning its only two World Series titles in 1907 and 1908 until 2016 Chance's.664 career winning percentage is the highest of any Cubs manager. After Chance, from 1913 through 1960, the Cubs employed nineteen managers, nine of which were inducted into the Hall of Fame. During this period, the Cubs won six more NL pennants, including three under manager Charlie Grimm. Split between Grimm's two managerial stints in the 1930s and 1940s, plus a brief appearance as manager in 1960, Grimm accumulated 946 career wins, second-most in franchise history behind Anson.
Owner P. K. Wrigley then began experimenting with the managerial position and in December 1960, announced that Cubs would not have only one manager for the coming season. Instead, the team implemented a new managerial system known as the "College of Coaches". The system was meant to blend ideas from several individuals instead of relying on one manager. During its first year, the team rotated four different managers into the role: Vedie Himsl, Harry Craft, El Tappe and Lou Klein. The next year, under the guidance of Tappe, Klein and Charlie Metro, the Cubs lost a franchise-record 103 games. Bob Kennedy managed the team for the next three seasons until Hall of Famer Leo Durocher assumed the managerial role for the 1966 season, effectively ending the five-year-long "College of Coaches" experiment. During his first season as manager, Durocher's Cubs tied the franchise's 103-game loss record set four years earlier by the "College"; however, he maintained a winning record for the rest of his seven-year tenure.
In the last 37 seasons since Durocher, the Cubs have had 22 managers. Jim Frey and Don Zimmer led the team to the National League Championship Series in 1984 and 1989, respectively. In both of those seasons, the team's manager won a Manager of the Year Award. Jim Riggleman managed the team for five years from 1995 through 1999, earning the team's first and only wild card playoff spot in 1998. Dusty Baker's Cubs lost in the 2003 NLCS during the first year of a four-year managing tenure. Baker's successor, Lou Piniella, led the team to two consecutive National League Central Division titles during his first two years with the team and was awarded the 2008 Manager of the Year Award. On July 20, 2010, Piniella announced his intention to retire as manager of the Cubs following the end of the season. However, on August 22, 2010, Piniella announced he would resign after that day's game, citing family reasons. Third base coach Mike Quade finished the remainder of the season as manager.
On November 7, 2013, the Cubs hired Rick Renteria as their new manager. He replaced Dale Sveum. He was fired on October 31, 2014 as the team prepared to hire Joe Maddon. On November 2, 2014, the Cubs officially announced that they had fired Renteria and hired Maddon. Maddon's contract was for five years and $25 million. Maddon went on to manage the Cubs from 2015-2019 breaking the clubs 108 year World Series drought. On Sep 29, before the final game of the season, Epstein and Maddon announced in a joint press conference that the Cubs would let Maddon's initial five-year contract expire.
On October 24, 2019, the Cubs hired David Ross as their manager to replace Joe Maddon, signing him to a three-year contract. Ross began his managerial career on July 25, 2020 with a 3-0 win at home against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Table key

#A running total of the number of Cubs managers. Any manager who has two or more separate terms is only counted once.
GMNumber of regular season games managed; may not equal sum of wins and losses due to tie games
WNumber of regular season wins in games managed
LNumber of regular season losses in games managed
Win%Winning percentage: number of wins divided by number of games managed
PAPlayoff appearances: number of years this manager has led the franchise to the playoffs
PWPlayoff wins: number of wins this manager has accrued in the playoffs
PLPlayoff losses: number of losses this manager has accrued in the playoffs
PTPlayoff ties: number of ties this manager has accrued in the playoffs
LCLeague Championships: number of League Championships, or pennants, achieved by the manager
WSWorld Series: number of World Series victories achieved by the manager
*Manager acted as interim manager
§Belonged to the "College of Coaches"
Awarded the Manager of the Year Award during tenure with the Cubs
† or ‡Elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame

Managers

Statistics current through 2019 season
#ManagerSeasonsGMWLWin%PAPWPLPTLCWSRef
‡-1267847.624
613030.500
†644121.661
19512.294
†-21941242911.577
-304160138.537
-286118161.423
‡-503280213.568
†-1178768389.664
†1558865.575
101567876.506
11†1577380.477
12†1566786.438
13-582308269.534
†964155.427
14-596300293.506
15†532330.434
16261214.462
17‡-770442321.579
18†-259141116.549
19-904534369.591
20†-383203176.536
21-474213258.452
22*101.000
-816406402.502
23†-339141196.418
24-384169213.442
25-465196265.425
26-465208254.450
17611.353
27†1395483.394
28§1156.455
29§1248.333
§17512.294
30§2201.000
§431.750
§403.000
§793543.449
31§1156.455
§-36927.250
§301218.400
32§1124369.384
33§-382182198.479
§1064858.453
34‡-1065535526.504
35-319157162.492
36-393175218.445
37-479238241.497
38*725.286
39903852.422
-17864111.366
40-285127158.446
41*391722.436
42-379196182.519
43*211.500
44-238114124.479
45*25817.320
46-524265258.507
47*101.000
481225963.484
49-324162162.500
501134964.434
51-794374419.472
52-407187220.459
53*101.000
54*783345.423
55-648322326.497
56-609316293.519
57-19995104.477
58-324127197.392
591627389.451
60-673471339.5813
61-present1101.000—