Now that Theo is officially coming to Chicago. Will he end the curse for the Cubs as well?
Some things to consider.
He'll have Jed Hoyer as his general manager. That deal was apparently done before the Theo compensation was resolved. He's bringing Jason McLeod, who was Theo and Jed in Boston, to Chicago as well. We won't know till later, but it's possible some people could be coming with Theo. When Hoyer and Byrnes left there were each allowed to take two people with them. Only one significant person apiece (in Hoyer's case it was McLeod). Barry Rozner of Chicago's Daily Herald reported yesterday: " Epstein has been trying hard to bring with him Jonathan Gilula, a Red Sox VP of business affairs for nine years and a man in the center of the Fenway Park renovations." that won't matter in terms of evaluating talent like Hoyer and McLeod will be able to, but if he can help in the Wrigley renovation that's huge.
Jeff Passan a MLB writer for Yahoo Sports said the following on twitter:
JeffPassan Jeff Passan
I loved Theo Epstein going to the Cubs. Getting Jed Hoyer's like splitting aces and hitting two face cards. As I said: Cubs, sleeping giant.
20 Oct
You may not hold Hoyer in a similar high regard. Here's what Theo will have to work with resource wise:
No one spent more on amateur players last year. The Cubs spent about $20 million on signings. $7 million of it on international signings. In the draft they signed 9 out of the first 10 picks, 18 out of the first 20. Our scouting director, Tim Wilken, was told to draft the best available players regardless of signability. Wilken said he hadn't seen that type of commitment to the draft since the early 90's when he was in Toronto. They paid over slot for a lot of them. They were even giving 1st round money ($2.5 mil) to their 14th round pick.
The Cubs are building a state of the art complex in the Dominican Republic. It will allow them to attract the biggest talent in that region, and have top notch training facilities to help their development.
They are also building a state of the art spring training complex that's suppose to be the best in Arizona. It's going to span 96 acres, and even have a Wrigleyville setup around the park. It will have living quarters for up to 100 players.
Ricketts personally visited every minor league facility the Cubs own last season. He wants to make sure every Cubs affiliate has the best training facilities available. He's really big on player development. That's one of the reasons he wants Theo. He values those things as well. Though Ricketts did tell Theo during his interview the Cubs would always have the top payroll in the NL Central (per David Kaplan). That should be an easy promise to make for two reasons: 1.) Cubs are far and away the largest market in the NL Central 2.) The Cubs already have the highest payroll. It's just not well spent. They have the 3rd highest payroll in baseball.
No one in the NL Central should be able to compete with how much the Cubs can spend on their payroll or the draft.
The final thing that's going to open up revenue is the Wrigley Field renovations. That's why it will be a big deal if Jonathan Gilula comes with Epstein. Ricketts was a big fan of the Fenway renovations. Once that's completed the big league club should have all the modern amenities afforded to players in newer parks. Most importantly creating a significantly better fan experience for a team that sees 3+ million people show up to an old run down park. The revenue streams that could open up as a result will be a great thing for ownership.
Just for good measure here's the plans for the Wrigley renovations.
So far I've approved of everything Ricketts has done. Instead of coming here and just throwing money at the big league roster to try to turn things around. He's taken his time to visity and survery every aspect of the Cubs organization. From getting a new facility in Mesa, to visiting our minor league facilities from Iowa to the Dominican. He's building it from the ground up. He seems to have found someone who's now going to build the front office you'd want giving all this a direction.
Under Jim Hendry the Cubs had the smallest front office in baseball. They'll now have one of the biggest. Not just the decision makers. Scouts and everything else will be expanded. Also Hendry never gave the minor leagues a clear vision. Depsite giving Rudy Jaramillo a nice contract. His appraoch to hitting was not spread to our minor league teams. Stuff like that has to change. Everyone at our facilities should be learning the Cubs brand of baseball, whatever Theo decides that is, to make for much smoother transitions to the bigs. I know the Twins are great at doing that.
I'm going to vote yes in the poll because I believe in the way the Cubs have approached building this organization.