The bad that Epstein is referring to is mostly on the mound, where last offseason he sunk $126 million into Yu Darvish, $38 million into Tyler Chatwood and $21 million into Brandon Morrow. None has come close to paying off.
The rest of the staff hasn’t helped either. The Cubs rank 28th in ERA so far. On top of that, they surprisingly rank at the bottom of the league in defense after a handful of games this year.
“It’s been real close to, if not, a worst-case scenario for us, defensively and in terms of our pitching,” Epstein said. “That gets your attention in a negative way. We’re sorry we’re putting our fans through this.”
Before Saturday’s game, the Cubs optioned Carl Edwards Jr., who was once a key pitcher for the team but has struggled mightily in the early going this year.
Manager Joe Maddon said he couldn’t remember a scenario where he had to send out a veteran before the team had played a home game. The Cubs don’t play their first game at Wrigley Field until Monday. So far, their nine-game road trip to open the season has been an unmitigated disaster.
“We need to change the script,” Epstein said. “We also know we control that. We need to play better defensibly and throw more strikes, and this should stabilize.”
It’s still early April, but Milwaukee’s hot start (7-1) combined with the Cubs’ slow one has made the standings a topic. In a worst-case scenario, the Cubs will be 7.5 games out of first place before playing their home opener.
“In a really competitive league and division, you don’t want to dig yourself too great a hole,” Epstein said. “It’s pretty important we start to turn this thing around and dig our way back to .500.”
Even Maddon’s job security has been a topic this early, considering he’s on the final year of his contract and the Cubs have publicly stated his fate won’t be decided until after the season. Asked if he was feeling any pressure associated with the bad start, Maddon said, “Zero.”
“The last four years have been pretty good,” he said. “If I have to rely on a week’s worth of baseball games, then that’s a bad process.”
Maddon was willing to shoulder the blame from the Cubs’ poor start, but Epstein acknowledged that at the end of the day “it’s all my responsibility.”
“This search for magic bullets or scapegoats, I don’t think that’s productive,” Epstein said. “I understand it, but ultimately it’s all my responsibility. … I’m not in it alone, thank God. We have really talented people here. We have great players that we trust. We’re all going to part of pulling out of this.
“You have to find a way to stabilize it even when things seem unstable.”
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