Imrem: Sox, Cubs need Maddon if they want to win

We're about to get a window into what the Cubs and White Sox are made of.

Are they as committed to winning as they'd like you to think they are?

Joe Maddon suddenly is available after opting out of his contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. If he isn't the best manager in baseball, he's awfully close.

Bruce Bochy might better. Terry Francona might be in the running. Mike Scioscia and Buck Showalter might be, too.

Who else, if anyone?

This isn't exactly a golden age of baseball managers like when Earl Weaver, Sparky Anderson and Whitey Herzog were in dugouts at the same time.

It's difficult to see three currently active managers enter the Hall of Fame together like Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre did this year.

So when a Joe Maddon is on the market, every team in the major leagues has to take a personal inventory of its uniformed staff.

The White Sox and Cubs especially should.

Let's face it: Robin Ventura on the South Side and Ricky Renteria on the North Side aren't exactly on a path toward Cooperstown.

Saying Joe Maddon would be an upgrade in Chicago is like saying a Rolls-Royce would be an upgrade over a Schwinn.

So we're about to see how committed to winning championships the Cubs and Sox are.

When it comes to managers, money really shouldn't be an issue because the position is filled relatively inexpensively.

Maddon's most recent contract extension reportedly averaged around $2 million annually and his next deal should be worth more than twice that.

But it sure isn't like paying $100 million over five years for a starting pitcher or even $75 million over five years for a multi-dimensional center fielder.

The manager's office is one of the few places left where a baseball team with lofty aspirations can affordably improve.

Of course, some baseball observers believe that a manager is worth only a few victories over a 162-game season.

That's poppycock. The right manager with the right franchise can insert the right players into his personally fashioned winning culture.

Joe Maddon did that in Tampa Bay, which is the only explanation for how the meager-payroll Rays competed with the mega-payroll Yankees and Red Sox during his nine seasons down there.

So imagine what Maddon could do with even a moderate payroll like the White Sox and Cubs figure to have the next few years.

The Cubs could sell Maddon on their supposedly outstanding collection of prospects about to emerge on the big-league level.

The Sox could sell Maddon on a good young core of players of their own, a chance to stay in the American League and a loyal club chairman in Jerry Reinsdorf.

That word might be the hang-up around here: Loyalty. To pursue Maddon, the Cubs and Sox would have to be disloyal to Ventura and Renteria.

Well, sorry, that shouldn't be a hang-up at all. Either a team wants to do everything possible to win a World Series or it doesn't.

Ventura and Renteria would be paid well either to go away or to remain with the Sox and Cubs in some other capacities.

In sports, loyalty is just a word that's heard when things are being said.

Reinsdorf is considered one of the most loyal persons in baseball … and in any industry for that matter.

But what has that done for the Sox? Under the loyal Reinsdorf they have won one championship in 33 years.

Both the Cubs and Sox are talking a good game. They're saying they are building toward sustained success and multiple World Series titles.

Oh, yeah?

Then prove it by bidding for Joe Maddon with offers he'll find it difficult to refuse.

mimrem@dailyherald.com