Epstein remains committed to long view with Chicago Cubs

It sounds like Theo Epstein remains committed to the long view when it comes to the idea of making a trade to help the Cubs.

The Cubs helped themselves for the short term in a dramatic and crazy way Monday night. Kris Bryant's walk-off 2-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning lifted them to a 9-8 victory over the Colorado Rockies.

Earlier, the Cubs erased a 4-0 deficit with 6 runs in the fourth only to see relievers Jason Motte and Rafael Soriano give up 4 in the top of the ninth to fritter away a 7-4 Cubs lead.

Bryant turned the mood with his 14th home run of the season, a blast to left-center against John Axford.

"It's really fun," Bryant said. "It's got to be one of the best feelings in sports. I've had a couple of those in my career, but they were both in college. To do it on this stage in front of those fans here in Chicago for myself … obviously I've been struggling a little bit.

"But I'm never going to give up. I always go out there and work as hard as I can and know that it's going to turn around. And it did today."

Neither the good times nor the bad - such as getting swept and no-hit by the Phillies over the weekend - figure to sway Epstein from wanting to make a trade before Friday's nonwaiver deadline.

"We'd really like to (make a deal), but it's impossible to say," he said. "I do think if we do something on the bigger end, it'll involve players who will help us beyond this year. If we do something of a smaller size, it will probably be more for a rental player.

"And if we do nothing, it will be because we couldn't find anything rational that we could actually do. I don't know which of those three directions it'll go yet."

The Cubs' team president said talks with other clubs were ongoing but that "nothing's real close."

He added that the terms "bigger" and "smaller" mean "magnitude of the deal, the caliber of the players involved."

In other words, if the Cubs give up a lot to get a starting pitcher, it's going to be for one they keep beyond the end of this season.

Cole Hamels, who no-hit the Cubs on Saturday, fits that bill, but Epstein also said he didn't "necessarily think we're close to trading for a big contract."

Hamels has just that as he's owed $73.5 million over the next three season after this one. At least Epstein was able to maintain a sense of humor over his club being no-hit by a possible trade target.

"I think he was a pretty good pitcher before he no-hit us," he said. "We're pretty familiar with him. He came out throwing 96 (mph) in the first inning. It was pretty clear he was trying to make a point - just in general. He had had a couple rough starts.

"He wanted to show that he's still pretty good. He could have made the point against someone else. We were there. We were in the way."

The Cubs' bats had been in a long slumber until breaking out with 6 runs in the fourth Monday chase Rockies starting pitcher Jorge De La Rosa. The Cubs and starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks trailed 4-0 before the rally.

In addition to a starting pitcher, the Cubs would love to add a veteran bat.

"We'd always like a veteran hitter to mix into the group, especially since Javy (Baez) went down and (Tommy) La Stella before him to give us a few more options to rest some guys," Epstein said. "It's not a great market for position players.

"We have an opportunity to upgrade the fifth-starter position, whether someone wants to step up internally or the more obvious path would be through a trade, and that's something we'd like to do."

Part of the reason the Cubs' offense has struggled is because they field lineups, at times, with four rookies. Those rookies are learning to adjust to big-league pitching.

"The ups and downs come with any team, veteran or young," Epstein said. "It's to be expected. It's important how you respond to it. To breaking in the young players, that shouldn't be an excuse. It's something we embrace. It's who we are. That's where we are right now.

"I wouldn't hang this on the rookies. We really haven't hit as a team since the end of May. It's been a slump that's lasted a month-and-a-half or so.

"Through some guts and great pitching, we've kept our head above water in that span. This weekend we didn't quite have the pitching, and it all came crashing down on us. That's natural. I hope we're nearing the end of this pretty long slump and we'll put ourselves out of it. It's part of the rhythm of the season."