Chicago Cubs: How much is Theo Epstein worth?

The Chicago Cubs have stayed at the forefront of the baseball world this winter, and today was no different. Now it’s time for the team to turn their focus to the next big free agent–Theo Epstein.

With the Chicago Cubs bringing Dexter Fowler back and essentially stunning the rest of the baseball world (okay, it was a surprise to most at least), especially the Orioles–it’s time to start thinking about the team’s next big free agent. The architect of this current team, Cubs’ President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein.

On Pardon the Interruption, co-host and lifelong Cubs’ fan Mike Wilbon gave his opinion and he wasn’t shy about the figures.

Cubs’ Chairman Tom Ricketts believes in Epstein in much of the same way. It’s true, the Cubs haven’t won anything yet. And Epstein’s deal will expire after this year. So if the they don’t quite make it to the World Series standard that most are hanging on them–is he worth big money?

Yes. Yes. A hundred times, yes. Is Wilbon’s figure a little insane? Eh, I don’t know. When it comes to salaries in baseball I’m not surprised by anything anymore. Should a GM make more than a field manager? And remember, Joe Maddon is doing just fine as skipper of the Cubs–and has earned every penny thus far. It’s a fair question, though. While the front office assembles the team, the manager makes it happen on the field. So is paying him as much as a star player a business savvy move?

The answer to that can be found in–if that star player is helping bring a championship to a team that hasn’t had one in 108 years? Yes, he is absolutely worth it.

Call it what you want–rebuild, gut job, even tanking–but this plan as it’s been referred to was hard to see at times. But Ricketts never waivered on his faith in Epstein, and Theo has done nothing to have him question it. Now we enter the fifth year of the contract and the Cubs are by all means favorites to win the World Series. The addition of Dexter Fowler only seemed to raise up the mystique around Epstein. I like Chris Coghlan, but I’ll take Fowler in center field all day while Jason Heyward roams right field.

As I watched this “plan” take shape, I often times had to talk myself and our readers into it. Trust in the plan, I’d say. Believe me, it took a lot of faith at times, but the reward has been worth it.

Let me not forget the parts that Jed Hoyer and Jason McLeod have played in the assembly of this team and the rebuilding of this organization from the ground up. McLeod had a chance to leave for a GM job but chose to stay to see this through. If only we knew it could turn out (possibly) this well for him. Epstein gets most of the credit, but it’s been a team effort.

More cubs: Cubs stun baseball world, re-sign Fowler

Everything seems to have fallen in line for the Cubs since the hiring of Maddon last winter. The free agents, the renovations, the magical 2015 season. There’s no reason not to believe that Epstein won’t be at the helm of the Cubs for many more years, and seeing the team as perennial winners would be worth every dime they pay him.