Maddon to get 3-year extension

Posted May 20, 2009 by Marc Lancaster

Updated May 20, 2009 at 05:14 PM

Rays manager Joe Maddon will finalize a three-year contract extension sometime in the coming days, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Maddon is in the last year of his original deal; the new one would lock him up through the 2012 season.

Neither Maddon nor team officials would comment on the pending deal.

“It is a private matter and we don’t comment either way on these types of talks,” executive vice president Andrew Friedman said in an e-mail to the Tribune earlier today. ” We’ll announce it if we do.”

“I have no comment because it’s an ongoing matter and it’s team policy to not really comment on those things,” said Maddon. “At the appropriate time we will, obviously, but it’s just not the appropriate time yet.”

Updating, sort of: The team released a statement from Friedman that was about as enlightening as expected:

“It has always been our policy not to comment on rumors or unconfirmed reports.”

It sounds like the announcement probably will happen sometime this weekend in Miami, which from a public relations standpoint isn’t terribly ideal. But as a baseball man once said to me in a similar situation, “A deal isn’t a deal until it’s a deal.”