Cubs’ Epstein talks of ‘covenant’ with fans

Cubs president Theo Epstein has introduced fans to a whole new lexicon.

Terms such as “parallel fronts,” “linear progression” and “foundation for sustained success” are part of the everyday conversation around Wrigley Field.

Epstein added another Thursday during a nearly 40-minute session with reporters at the ballpark: covenant.

During one point of our conversation, I asked Epstein how he reconciles sticking with the Cubs’ long-term plan of building from within with the fans’ desire to see a winning team quickly.

“The only way that we can thread that needle, I think, is by being transparent,” he said. “That means not selling a bill of goods.

“I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘Don’t worry about 101 losses because we have a magic plan to win the World Series in 2013, and it’s going to happen, so be there now.’ That’s not the case.

“If we don’t stay committed to that vision, I think that’s disrespectful of the fans, too, because we’ve made a bit of a covenant with them that we’re going somewhere and by buying tickets and showing tremendous support as they have, they’re buying in and they’re a part of that covenant.

“So we need to reward them ultimately, and it’s going to be a lot of hard work along the way.”

Epstein is trying to pull off something that probably wouldn’t play in other major markets: rebuilding. But, really, there’s not much other choice.

If the Cubs are going to have that “sustained success,” they had to start over at the minor-league level. On top of that, Epstein inherited a major-league team that finished 71-91 last year.

This year brought even more pain as the Cubs finished 61-101 for only their third season of at least 100 losses.

Epstein addressed a number of wide-ranging topics.

On this season:#147;Very disappointing season in terms of wins and losses, and, ultimately, that#146;s what counts. Just going through the year, we had a real tough stretch to start the year.#147;We were in a lot of games. We had a tough bullpen month to start and lost a lot of close games and kind of buried ourselves right out of the chute. We didn#146;t have the talent to overcome that.#147;We had a really nice stretch, I thought, the best stretch of the year, probably from late June through late July. We went 19-10, played pretty good baseball.#147;At the trade deadline, we had a decision whether to try to kind of preserve what we had going and win a few more games in 2012 even though we were out of the postseason race in our minds at that time or whether to make a little bit of an investment in the future at the expense of the quality of the club for the last two months of the season.#147;We made a tough decision to invest a little more in the future at that time.#148;On exploring the free-agent market:#147;We#146;ll have to pursue free agency to some degree for starting pitching. We have some holes to fill in our rotation mainly because what we did at the trade deadline.#147;Ryan Dempster would have been a free agent anyway, but Paul Maholm could have been in the 2013 rotation. But we got what we thought was a really, really talented young pitcher (Arodys Vizcaino) back for him.#147;We#146;ll have to pursue starting pitching in free agency. There are going to be a lot of teams looking at a pretty limited field, so I don#146;t think there#146;s going to be great value to be had out there.#147;I think there#146;s some quality, and I wouldn#146;t be surprised to see us sign a free agent or two for our rotation.#148;On being contenders by 2014:#147;I haven#146;t considered 2014 or any specific year. I just know that we have to continue to push the organization forward.#147;I#146;ll say this: I#146;d be incredibly disappointed if our baseball operation as a whole is not much, much healthier by then and in a position where we can see what contention is going to look like here.#147;In other words, our core of players is getting to a point where it#146;s well defined.#147;I don#146;t know what that timetable is going to be and how quickly they develop and what moves we make, whether it#146;s then, whether it#146;s earlier for them, whether it#146;s later for them.#147;I would hope that we would have some real definition to our core of young players and at that point seeking out to really complement it and winning plenty of ballgames.#148;bmiles@dailyherald.comBBN27482011Cubs president Theo Espstein addressed the future of the team with reporters Thursday.Associated Press FILE PHOTOBBN