The Theo Epstein Ordeal

          

            About four months ago, the Boston Red Sox made a deal with the Chicago Cubs. The Chicago Cubs wanted to sign the Boston Red Sox, general manager, Theo Epstein, as their own. However, Theo Epstein’s contract with the Boston Red Sox was not up yet for another year. The Red Sox decided that the Chicago Cubs could have Epstein now if they worked out a deal. The deal would be that the Red Sox get a “significant compensation.” The definition of what their “significant compensation” is going to be is what has been stirring in the news lately. The Red Sox feel as if they are owed something for taking Theo Epstein when the contract was not up yet. The compensation that the Red Sox are supposed to be getting is a significant aggressive player.

            As mentioned before, this deal was made four months ago, and still no agreement has been made on what compensation the Red Sox will get for Theo Epstein.  Therefore, the Red Sox have still not been given their significant compensation because the Red Sox and Cubs cannot agree on what the Red Sox will get from them.

            The issue has been ongoing for so long now that the commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig has taken the issue into his own hands and will decide the resolution. In Rob Kelley’s article called, Boston Red Sox to Receive Significant Player From Chicago Cubs As Compensation For Theo Epstein?,he believes that the Red Sox were first gunning for starting pitcher Matt Garza for compensation. However, he believes that this is too much to ask for. Bud Selig might however, want to give the Red Sox a very significant player from the Cubs maybe so that teams know if they try this ordeal themselves they could lose a key player. This is the issue that arises with the decision Bud Selig has to make is that if he decides to give the Red Sox a good player then other teams will want to get general managers while their contracts are still going because they have a good chance of getting a greater player (Kelley).

            This ordeal happening between the Red Sox and Chicago Cubs is something new in baseball, a conflict that probably many scouts and baseball fanatics would be angry over years ago. This conflict is a way of “new thinking” while the scouts in Moneyball, are trapped in their ways of “old thinking.” This situation arising and as well as whatever decision is made is a step forward into letting different circumstances happen in baseball unlike the scouts in Moneyball, who want to leave everything in Baseball the way it has been forever. The scouts’ problem in Moneyball and in baseball is that the world changes, people change, but the scouts’ wont change what they perceive as the game.

The other problem that comes into play for scouts and “old time thinkers” of Baseball is the morality of baseball. Unlike any other sport, people hold baseball to a certain standard. If the Chicago Cubs can take the Boston Red Sox general manager before his contract is up by trading one of their players, what will happen next that has never happened before? Probably, many things like this will happen, and they should because the world changes and baseball can change even if scouts and old time thinkers believe it shouldn’t.