Cubs president Theo Epstein is smarter than the rest of us when it comes to leading a baseball organization. His three World Series rings and two broken curses are testament to that. But he is not infallible. His final three years in Boston are testament to that.
He and manager Terry Francona failed to win a playoff game and lost control of the clubhouse. In Chicago, Epstein’s patient tanking strategy proved effective and may have set a template for too many other teams to follow, but two weaknesses may be boxing him in this offseason. These are over-attachment of his young major-league bats and an over-flexing of the Cubs’ (once) big-market budget advantage.