Chicago Cubs: Re-examining Theo Epstein’s first year on the job

Theo Epstein took over as President of Baseball Operations after the 2011 season. Here, we look back at his first year on the job with the Chicago Cubs.

After the 2011 season, the Chicago Cubs made their first big move toward becoming a contender by hiring Theo Epstein to become President of Baseball Operations. Epstein had already become a legend by building the Boston Red Sox team that broke their 86-year championship drought. The Yale graduate came to Chicago tasked with ending an even longer drought.

Under Epstein, the Chicago Cubs have had one of their best runs in team history. Starting in 2015, the team had five straight winning seasons, including four straight playoff appearances. And as we know, he was able to build the roster that ended the Cubs’ championship futility after 108 years in 2016. Despite things not going as well as we’d hoped over the past couple of seasons, overall we should be able to say that Epstein’s run has been a success to this point.

Yet before all the winning, there were a few painful rebuilding years. The organization that Epstein inherited was a mess, and it was clear that he was not going to be able to build a championship-caliber roster right away. It would take a lot of good trades, free agent signings, and draft picks to get to that point.

Epstein’s first year on the job was critical in laying the groundwork for success. On the field, there wasn’t much to get excited about, as the team had one of their worst seasons in franchise history at 61-101. Most of the decisions that Epstein and his team made were geared toward the future. Here, we look back at some of the most important moves that the team made during Epstein’s first year and how they impacted the team’s long-term success.

Chicago Cubs: The first offseason

One of Epstein’s first orders of business was to make a decision on manager Mike Quade. The team decided to let him go after only one year and brought in Dale Sveum. Sveum had little to work with, as most of us knew that he would be a placeholder while the team underwent some painful rebuilding. Indeed, Sveum lasted two years.

Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Pena, and Carlos Zambrano are among the Chicago Cubs who were not brought back for the 2012 season as Epstein decided to overhaul the roster. The club brought in veterans such as David DeJesus, Reed Johnson, and Paul Maholm via free agency to help fill out the roster, but those were just short-term moves while the team repositioned itself long-term.

The Cubs made three big trades that offseason; two were great, while one remains painful to this day. The first move was to trade DJ LeMahieu and Tyler Colvin to the Colorado Rockies for Casey Weathers and Ian Stewart, as the club believed that Stewart could be a viable solution at third base.

But Stewart was a disaster, as he played in only 55 games and batted .201 with just five home runs before suffering a season-ending injury. The next year, he criticized the team on Twitter while playing in Triple-A and was released without playing for the big league club in 2013.

LaMahieu, meanwhile, became a batting champion for the Rockies, and just this past year he was an All-Star for the third time with the New York Yankees. LeMahieu has also won three Gold Glove Awards.

This might be a little depressing, but read on, as it gets much better.

Chicago Cubs: The first offseason (continued)

Despite the trade with the Rockies not working out, the Chicago Cubs made two trades during the 2011-2012 offseason that were brilliant. The first one came when the Cubs decided to sell high on veteran reliever Sean Marshall, trading him to the Cincinnati Reds for Travis Wood, Dave Sappelt, and Ronald Torreyes.

The latter two players didn’t do much, but Wood had a nice run with the Cubs. He had a decent 2012 season before he was an All-Star in 2013, posting a 3.11 ERA in 200 innings, making 32 starts. The left-hander then became a valuable bullpen piece during the Cubs’ 2016 championship season. While the Reds gave up on Wood, it ended up being the Cubs’ gain.

Then came perhaps Epstein’s most important trade and one of his most important moves overall in building a championship club: He acquired Anthony Rizzo from the San Diego Padres for Andrew Cashner.

Epstein had previously traded Rizzo away while with the Red Sox in the deal that brought Adrian Gonzalez from San Diego to Boston. Now the Cubs benefitted from the Padres giving up on Rizzo and banking on Yonder Alonso being their first baseman of the future.

Cashner has bounced around as a starting pitcher in the major leagues over the past several seasons, but the Cubs clearly won this trade. Rizzo has had four seasons of over 30 home runs and four seasons of over 100 RBI, plus he’s won two Gold Glove awards. He’s the longest-tenured Cub and has been a cornerstone of this winning run.

Chicago Cubs: Theo Epstein’s first draft

When a team is rebuilding, drafting well is critical. The Chicago Cubs have made several good draft picks in recent years. How did Epstein and his team do in their first draft in 2012?

With their first-ever pick, the sixth pick overall, the Cubs selected outfielder Albert Almora, Jr. Among those the Cubs passed on to take Almora are Max Fried, David Dahl, Addison Russell, Lucas Giolito, Corey Seager, Michael Wacha, Marcus Stroman and Jose Berrios.

While Almora hasn’t become a star, Epstein’s first pick has been far from a disaster. Almora will always be remembered for scoring the go-ahead run in the tenth inning of Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. The right-handed hitting outfielder then had nice seasons in 2017 and 2018. While he doesn’t hit for much power or take many walks, he proved himself to be a solid hitter and a great defender. However, he took a step backward in both departments in 2019, leading to speculation that he may be non-tendered this offseason.

With supplemental picks, the Cubs selected pitchers Pierce Johnson and Paul Blackburn, both of whom pitched in the majors but didn’t do much. Only two other players from that draft have appeared in the majors with the Cubs: Duane Underwood, Jr. (second round), who took a long time to develop but could be a bullpen piece for the Cubs in 2020, and David Bote (18th round), who has turned into a nice bat off the bench over the past two seasons.

Pitcher Thomas Pannone is the other Cubs selection from that draft to reach the majors – as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2018 and 2019.

Chicago Cubs: Grading Theo Epstein’s first year

We’ve now had seven years to see how Epstein’s first-year moves with the Chicago Cubs would work out. If we had to assign a letter grade, what would we give him?

Two moves deserve a solid A: the Rizzo and Hendricks trades. Those two moves will go down as two of Epstein’s best, regardless of how the rest of his tenure with the Cubs plays out. I’d also give him an A for the Wood trade. Considering that Marshall was a reliever, as good as he was, the fact that the Cubs could get a pitcher who contributed as much as Wood did for him deserves high marks.

For the 2012 draft, I’d give Epstein a C. They could have gotten a better player than Almora, but considering how some of the team’s previous first-round picks have worked out, he wasn’t a big miss. The fact that they missed on Pierce Johnson and on Blackburn knocks down the grade.

I’d give the Soler signing a B. It wasn’t a bad move to make; it just didn’t work out for them. Plus, they did get something of value in return, as they have for a few of their other young assets, so it wasn’t a total disaster.

The LaMahieu/Stewart trade deserves an F. They totally bombed on this one.

As for the managerial hire, I’m not sure what grade to assign. Sveum accomplished nothing with the Cubs, though he had nothing to work with, either. I don’t think Sveum did a terrible job, but he wasn’t the right man moving forward. I’ll give it a B.

So, overall, I’d give Theo Epstein a B for his first year on the job. He made a few moves that didn’t pan out, but the Rizzo and Hendricks trades were big hits and he deserves credit for that.