CHICAGO — Cubs President Theo Epstein frequently uttered the word “accountability” Monday at the annual Cubs postmortem at Wrigley Field.
“When we fail to accomplish any of our goals, that is my responsibility as the leader of the baseball operation,” he said. “As a leader, it’s really important to be accountable, and really important to take a really honest look at things that we can do better, that I can do better.”
The first thing Epstein needs to be accountable for and be better at is explaining why he borrowed a page from Ariana Grande and basically said “thank u, next” to Joe Maddon.
Epstein has done nothing but praise Maddon the last two days, calling him a Hall of Fame manager and a great friend. He said Maddon “doesn’t get enough credit for changing the whole identity of the team in 2015, creating a mindset that allowed these young players to operate without anxiety and with a lot of bravado.”
But he still hasn’t said exactly what Maddon did, or did not do, that made it impossible for the most successful Cubs manager of the last century to stick around a couple of more years with the players who came of age under his guidance.
It was not about money, Epstein said Monday: “The amount of money we’ll be paying for a manager has never come up, one time.”
It was not about the 2019 collapse, he said Sunday.
So what in the world was the problem? Why couldn’t this work?
“Because Joe was the perfect manager at the perfect moment in time for us,” he said Monday. “For the group that we had and where they were in their careers, what they were trying to accomplish in the game, the identity that we needed to establish.
“He was the perfect guy. And if I could go back and do it again, I obviously, as would anyone in this room, go back and hire him again. And now we need the perfect guy for this moment in time, for this group, for where they are in their careers, for the way their skills and habits and outlook have evolved. There is a unique challenge at this moment in time.
“If I were in a different situation, I would hire Joe in a second today. But for this group, by definition I feel like change is important. There are just certain things a new voice can accomplish that the same voice, no matter how talented, even a Hall of Fame manager, can’t quite accomplish the same, especially with our group.”
We don’t know what that group will be because Epstein again promised significant changes, even declining to rule out trading Javier Baez. Doubt it. If that happens, fans will be marching on the Cubs offices and demanding Epstein’s head. He certainly doesn’t want to be headless giving his Hall of Fame induction speech.
Getting back to Maddon, Epstein said he was guilty of looking back and “thinking to yourself, that worked in the past” but may not work any longer.
“We can all benefit from turning the page and looking forward and not backward,” he said. “Joe is going to go someplace and dominate.”
One benefit the next manager will have, Epstein said, is that he “hasn’t been around to push that player to the next level.”
So apparently that wasn’t one of Maddon’s strengths, and the Cubs need a pusher, not a manager who trusts them to act like adults and motivate themselves.
Fair enough. Now who is the designated pusher?
Epstein will start culling candidates from his “broad list” this week. The obvious choice, and the only one he spoke about directly Monday, was David Ross, a special assistant to Epstein and the life of the party on the 2016 Cubs.
As Epstein wrote in the foreword to Ross’ book, “Teammate,” the former Cubs catcher seemingly has all the traits he’s looking for in a manager:
“Unselfishness. Accountability. Connectedness. David was the catalyst for these winning ingredients because he studied them and went out of his way to cultivate them for his teammates. In some ways, he was born for the role.”
Ross has spent a lot of time with Epstein this season, including in his suite during the final homestand at Wrigley Field. So it was weird to hear the ESPN analyst tell ESPN.com: “I’m sure waiting for that phone call,” as if the two have never discussed the possibility of him managing.
Whether it’s Ross or a Rossy clone, the next Cubs manager will have to impose more discipline and somehow get this group to understand that every game matters.
Of all the players we interviewed in Pittsburgh and St. Louis last week, the best theory I heard about what happened to the Cubs came from starter Cole Hamels.
In essence, Hamels said Cubs players didn’t treat the opposition with the same respect other teams had for the Cubs.
“Everybody wants to come in and beat the Cubs,” Hamels said. “That’s the team. I know growing up the mentality was everybody wants to beat the Yankees. So you have to be better than that, and you have to understand teams are coming in (to beat you).
“There are times they’re treating it more importantly than just one game in a season. It’s a bigger moment for them, and I think we have to counter that. And I think that might have been the case a couple times in series throughout the year, knowing that (teams are) coming in a little more energized, a little more chip on their shoulder. And we have to keep that importance, and that edge.”
It was quite an indictment of the attitude of the Cubs, who don’t seem to understand how much other teams hate them, just as teams hated the old Yankees dynasty. Being hated means you’ve made it, so congrats to Maddon for turning the lovable losers into hateable winners.
But if the players didn’t understand that everyone wanted to kick their butt, that could be a reflection on Maddon’s leadership. And if so, Epstein should’ve said so instead of leaving it to Hamels to explain.
It no longer matters, I suppose. Maddon is gone and already has been linked to the Angels, a perfect landing spot for the quintessential California dreamer.
Apologies for believing Cubs fans deserve a straightforward answer instead of the ambiguous “change is important” nonsense.
If it’s so important, why are there never any changes in the front office?
Everyone should be accountable, not just the manager and the players.
