Rick Renteria deserved better.

After 20 years of working his way up the ladder, he took over the Chicago Cubs in the 2014 season and infused energy and optimism into the fan base and clubhouse. He won seven more games than his predecessor, Dale Sveum. And now, after just one year, the Cubs are throwing him to a Waveland Avenue curb. They fired him Friday afternoon.

If it's any consolation, Bruce Bochy and Ned Yost were once told they were no longer wanted, either.

Rick Renteria won't be managing the Cubs next season, but he deserves a chance somewhere else. AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

The employees and fans of the Tampa Bay Rays deserved better, too.

After a season in which their spiritual adviser, Don Zimmer, passed away, and their ace, David Price, was traded, they now have to make do without their general manager, Andrew Friedman, and their manager, Joe Maddon, who convinced the Rays to play over their heads and their mini-market payroll.

If it's any consolation, the smart people in charge of the franchise are still there.

On Monday afternoon, the Cubs will formally introduce Joe Maddon as their 52nd manager since they last won the World Series in 1908. But even before that news conference, the hand-wringing had started. One high-ranking major league executive told Andy Martino of the New York Daily News: "The whole industry is talking about what a classless act [this is]." The "act" being the filling of a job that wasn't open.

But here's the thing. Best beats better.

And there is no doubt that Cubs fans deserve the best. They have stood by their team through thick and mostly thin for 106 years and watched as arrivistes like the Marlins and Blue Jays won multiple titles. The team president, Theo Epstein, has been charged with erasing the curse the way he did in Boston, and suddenly this week he had a chance to hire arguably the best manager in baseball. Does he do the right, honorable thing by giving Renteria a little more time to prove he's the man for the job? Or does he do a smart, sensible thing by bringing in a man who already has proved he can work wonders?