THE FUTURE’S SO BRIGHT…
Epstein’s plan is paying off, and it will continue to down the line
They have at least four more games to play this season and 14 at most. But the way Cubs players seem to see it, there’s no end in sight. “Things can only get better from here,” rookie shortstop Addison Russell said after the Cubs beat the Cardinals on Tuesday to advance to the National League Championship Series, at least a year earlier than even the most optimistic internal projections.
But unlike previous Cubs playoff teams, the endgame isn’t about a single October obsession with holy grails and 100-year-old ghosts. In fact, this endgame doesn’t have an end date.
“Once we got to a point in 2015 where we were clearly a really competitive club and then obviously clinching to get into the postseason, it became all about 2015,” team president Theo Epstein said. “This is the chance to win the World Series. This is truly sacred.
“But that said, taking a step back, regardless of what happens over the next month, we all have the sense that this is a beginning.”
That pervasive sense in the clubhouse seems to contribute to the looseness of a team that leaned hard on four rookies to beat the Pirates and Cardinals in four of five playoff games.
A team that’s built to have a young core intact for at least the next five or six years.
“I think the players feel that, and the front office and ownership feel it,” Epstein said. “We have a chance, if we do our jobs the right way, to make this a special period where a lot of these players are going to move towards their prime and stay together and hopefully be heard from again this time of year on a consistent basis.
“That’s for another day. Right now, this is the most important thing in the world for us.”
Where the Cubs go from here in the playoffs is uncertain, from their destination (New York or Los Angeles) to the outcome of the series. Or the next one.
Epstein isn’t assuming anything beyond that, either, even as his first competitive Cubs team (97 wins) nearly equaled his high-water victory total of 98 by his 2004 Red Sox team that won the franchise’s first World Series in 86 years. He won again with the Red Sox in 2007.
“Nothing is set in stone,” Epstein said. “It’s OK to talk about windows and to make plans, but you have to acknowledge the uncertainty of it all, the arbitrary nature, the way bad luck or bad decision-making or bad performances can impact what you thought was a sure-fire window.
“It’s going to take a lot of hard work by a lot of people to make sure we maximize this period. That’s our plan. But you can’t take anything for granted. You can’t say, ‘Oh, well, 2015’s gravy because we’re going to be awesome in 2018.’ It doesn’t work that way. We have no idea who’s going to be on the team, how healthy we’re going to be in 2018.”
If the Cubs win 90 games next year, that doesn’t mean it’s a worse team.
“Doesn’t mean it’s a bad year,” Epstein said.
What’s certain is that all of these firsttime playoff experiences— in particular, the performances of rookies Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber and Addison Russell— will put the starting lineup next spring in a different state mentally.
“It’s invaluable,” Maddon said, pointing to the experience of winning the wild-card game on the road. “Moving forward, man, to have grown in this manner is just going to benefit our guys in the future. And to get all this done in the framework of one season is pretty incredible.”
“It’s going to be a really meaningful experience no matter what happens,” Epstein said. “And then sentimentally, too.