Front office filled, Chicago Cubs’ winter plans unknown – MLB News
With the sweeping changes introduced by Theo Epstein, the president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs, has not made their intentions known as to what frontline changes are to be expected in the near future.
The managerial slot filled with the arrival of Dale Sveum, after their vacation with the dismissal of Mike Quade, the general manager brought in Jed Hoyer, Joe Bohringer as the director of pro scouting, Jason McLeod brought in as the head of scouting and
player movement, Shiraz Rehman as the assistant to the general manager. This effectively filled all the positions in the front office.
They need a lot to fill in when it comes to pitching. When it comes to the starting pitching depth, there is no big name apart from Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner. Even Cashner arrival did not materialise into a major success as he remained out of the ballpark
due to a strained right rotator cuff.
Carlos Zambrano’s fate is unknown. While he is performing well in the Venezuelan Winter League, how the talks between him and Theo Epstein go in the near future has no certainty either, since it will decide the pitcher’s fate.
There were already reports of the Chicago Cubs having been in contact with free-agents Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols. Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Pena, whom the club wants to talk for filling third base.
But the club wants to keep all these moves to themselves. "Those are things we'll try to solve," Hoyer said. "As for the actual plan, we'll keep that to ourselves."
While Epstein likes to remain unpredictable, so is his every move. He wants to go for moves that do not negatively impact the team in the long run. "I'm going to look for moves that make us better in the long run, but don't negatively impact us in 2012,"
Epstein said.
With a lot on the cards before the commencement of Spring Training, when the clubs will finally get their hands on free-agents, the Chicago Cubs move to strike contracts with new players that will go a long way to determine how strong they will be as a competitive
side in 2012.
Tags: