EVEN BEST MESS UP
Cubs' Epstein not immune to making terrible deals
THEO Epstein is arguably the best baseball executive going and in the conversation among the best ever — a Hall-ofFame point that will be galvanized should he steer the Cubs from curse to championship as he did twice with the Red Sox.
But even the best make mistakes. It is the nature of the beast. If you get 60 percent of key decisions right (which means 40 percent wrong), you can get to Cooperstown. And the bigger the market, the larger the potential for mistakes.
Boston and Chicago are huge markets and in the last week there was a reminder of significant moves Epstein sanctioned in each place that went horribly wrong as the Marlins designated Edwin Jackson for assignment and the Dodgers did the same with Carl Crawford.
They represented $194 million in contracts (neither yet completed) that never worked in either Boston or Chicago.
Again, every executive is going to make plenty of blunders. Judgment should be based on an overall body of work, not on one or two clunkers. For example, the Cubs under Epstein, their president of baseball operations, signed four notable free agents in the offseason. Three (Dexter Fowler, John Lackey and Ben Zobrist) are thriving, one (Jason Heyward) was given $180 million, has a .615 OPS and could end up in the Crawford/Jackson bin.
But three out of four right has the Cubs on the launch pad to a historic season, so overall check mark to Epstein.
Epstein has admitted as Red Sox GM, outside influences — fans, media, the need to garner NESN ratings — prodded him to give Crawford a seven-year, $142 million contract in December 2010, just days after trading for Adrian Gonzalez with the promise he would receive a seven-year, $154 million deal. Boston saw Crawford as a dynamic two-way player and gave him, what was at the time, the sixth-largest total outlay in MLB history.
The Red Sox thought they had assembled a super team and would dominate the AL East, especially after the Yankees failed to sign Cliff Lee (funny how things work, the Yanks were lambasted for not getting Lee, whose contract turned out to be mostly a nightmare).
But Crawford wilted in Boston and was one of the culprits of the infamous 2011 September collapse (think fried chicken and beer). With the Red Sox headed to last place, Crawford was traded during the 2012 campaign with Gonzalez and Josh Beckett to the star-craving Dodgers. That got the Red Sox out of the miserable contract, helped them diversify the funds elsewhere and win it all in 2013 (but under new GM Ben Cherington).
Still, Crawford’s contract stands with the current five-year, $95 million deal for Pablo Sandoval as the worst in Red Sox history (the Sandoval contract more than any other arguably leading to Cherington’s Boston exit).
Crawford had moments with the Dodgers, but was never dynamic, mostly injured and finally on Sunday was designated for assignment with a .464 OPS this year, third worst among those with at least 85 plate appearances. NBA star Klay Thompson’s brother, Trayce, has emerged a quality player, further reducing Crawford’s playing time so he was DFA’d with approximately $35 million on that $142 million deal that runs through next year. At 34, Crawford might be done.
The same could be said for Jackson, 32, since 10 teams have already been teased by his talents and moved on. Epstein, as the Cubs president of baseball operations, wanted to steady a rebuilding effort in Chicago by bringing what he believed was a durable starter who, at 29, was about to honor his full skill set. So in January 2013, Jackson received a four-year, $52 million deal.
For 2 ¹/2 years, Jackson was among the majors’ worst pitchers (16-34, 5.34 ERA) before the Cubs released him late last July owing him roughly $15 million.
Jackson made two starts for the Braves late last year and then signed with the Marlins in the offseason. Miami brought in pitching guru Jim Benedict from the Pirates, where he had great success turning struggling talents into productive pitchers again. But Jackson had a 5.91 ERA in eight appearances out of the pen, was DFA’d on May 31 and released June 2.
The Cubs still owe him around $7 million for the rest of this season. Thus, from the contracts approved by Epstein, Crawford and Jackson were in line to be paid about $42 million not to play in the majors.