NEWSLETTER
The possibility of an extension for Chicago Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein has come up around here a couple times over the past few weeks, as he enters his fourth year in a five-year deal. While the Cubs haven’t won a whole lot of games in his tenure thus far, no thinking person can argue that the positive impact – and stellar trajectory – for the organization hasn’t been there in spades. Epstein has more than earned his keep, and it’s easy to want him to stick around for much longer as the fruits of his early year efforts play out.
To that end, Dan Bernstein reports that it’s possible the Cubs, while working out the details on a Joe Maddon contract, could also be putting together an extension for Theo Epstein that would marry the two up over the next five years. That would suggest a five-year deal for Maddon (which has been the expectation) and a three-year extension for Epstein.
If it plays out that way, the alignment of interests would be pretty remarkable: each of Epstein, Maddon, and business president Crane Kenney would be signed through 2019, the Cubs’ full slate of TV broadcasts comes available after 2019, the Wrigley Field renovation is slated to be completed for the 2019 season, and the leveraged partnership-related restrictions could conclude in 2019. In other words, everything could be working together toward a continued rise of Cubs-related positivity over the next five years, and the Cubs could have all of their key decision makers in place and locked up for that period.
