The Stadium search, and fans "not showing up" doesn't affect what the Manager has to worry about...
I didn't say they were his problem. I did say they affect the environment in which he's working. In a complete vacuum, you get to go to work at Wrigley Field for 81 days each season, or you get to go to the Trop.
The later two are just off. This team might be built on an air tight budget, but the new GM Matt Silverman has a good job finding talent. We've aquired players like Stephen Souza, Erasmo Ramirez and Corey Dickerson for peanuts
Of those three, Souza is the only one to write home about, really. Ramirez is "just a guy" and Dickerson was a Coors Field product. And that doesn't change the fact that they were acquired after Maddon's tenure, which sort of makes them irrelevant to the discussion.
Kiermaier and Forsythe have also played at a high level
Kiermaier's glove is very good and will carry him for many years, enough so to make up for the bat deficiencies - an OPS+ of 97 last season puts him just under league average, offensively, so that high WAR is almost entirely from his defense. Forsythe is good but not great, though being a middle infielder helps the bat play up considerably.
We're still a team with playoff level talent
The Rays were second-to-last in the AL in runs scored last season and they are last in the AL in runs scored this season, though we are just over two weeks in. That is not a "playoff level" offense.
he left the organization because he has no loyalty. He didn't even give the Rays a chance to match any offer.
That's a false narrative that ignores all the aforementioned issues. He left because the Cubs offered him more money, a better front office, a considerably larger payroll and a stronger roster and farm system, among other things. Are you telling me you wouldn't take an upgrade of that magnitude if you were "unemployed" or "a free agent" or whatever you want to call it - that is, in a position to take any job you wanted, as Maddon was after opting out, an option that only manifested because Friedman left (where's the ire towards him?).
I don't mean to make this a total indictment of the situation he left behind, but he had the chance to take a position that was a considerable upgrade, free and clear, and did so. Not only would you do the same in that situation, but painting Maddon as some sort of traitor and the Cubs as the big bad entity who enabled him willfully ignores why he left in the first place.
