CHICAGO (670 The Score) -- Long after the aisles of Wrigley Field were cleared in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein was left tossing and turning.
Epstein was left to ponder how the Cubs' five-game lead over the Brewers on Labor Day morning was lost in the final month, why his loaded lineup had 40 games in which it posted zero or one run this season and how a team billed as a World Series contender bowed out in the wild-card round Tuesday night.
Epstein was back in the office Wednesday morning, working on little sleep on what suddenly became the first day of this pivotal offseason. He held exit interviews with Cubs players, gathering every detail that could help his evaluations and the major decisions that loom.
But it was also important for Epstein to open his schedule for the media, offering as much time as needed to answer for his Cubs organization. Late in the afternoon, he held a press conference that totaled one hour and six minutes inside a cramped room in the bowels of Wrigley Field.
Epstein set the tone for the Cubs moving forward: Everyone needs to be better, himself included.
"Ultimately, everything that happens on the baseball field and in our whole baseball operation, the responsibility ends with me," Epstein said. "So, when something's not right, it's my responsibility to fix it. Especially, important for me to step up when things aren't right.
"I couldn't wait to get here (Wednesday) morning and try to channel some of that frustration and energy into finding solutions.
"It's on me. It's on all of us. I'm the leader of this group, and I need to lead the charge to fix it."
Theo Epstein wants more urgency out of Cubs in 2019
Epstein first addressed MLB's 40-game suspension of shortstop Addison Russell for violating the joint domestic violence policy, a punishment that he learned about walking into the media session. He revealed that manager Joe Maddon would be back for the fifth and final season of his Cubs contract, explaining that they have a strong working relationship while also admitting in the process that they don't always see eye-to-eye.
Then there was the matter of the struggling Cubs lineup, which managed just two runs and nine hits in 22 season-defining innings across Monday and Tuesday.
"I've never been part of something like this offensively, and I never want to be again," Epstein said. "We have to be an offensive force. We should be with the talent on our roster. But it's probably time to stop evaluating this in terms of talent and start evaluating in terms of production. We need to do everything to produce offensively."
The Cubs' clubhouse after their loss to the Rockies on Tuesday was a revealing scene that offered a glimpse into team. Players like Kris Bryant and Albert Almora Jr. appeared heartbroken, sitting isolated in their chairs. Others exchanged hugs and expressed pride in winning 95 games despite injuries and inconsistencies.
They all sipped beverages and enjoyed the brotherhood ever present while also acknowledging their shortcomings. Ace Jon Lester, who gave the Cubs a chance with six innings of one-run ball, offered a different perspective of the wild-card exit.
"Sometimes, you need to get your d--- knocked in the dirt to appreciate where you're at," Lester said. "Maybe we needed that. Maybe we needed to get knocked down a peg or two and realize nothing's going to be given to us."
Those words seemed to stick with Epstein as he met with players for reflections of the season. It's his task to strengthen the clubhouse culture and sharpen the edge of this group.
The Cubs rose up in 2015 as a hungry team ready to take over the baseball world. They shut out the Pirates in the wild-card game in Pittsburgh and knocked off the division champion Cardinals in the National League Division Series. The Cubs would then win the World Series in 2016 and establish themselves as the hunted.
But in the wake of that World Series triumph, the Cubs somehow lost their edge. Epstein wants that back.
"Again, 95 wins is tremendous," Epstein said. "But, sometimes, divisions aren't lost on that last day of the season when you only score one run and you don't get in (the NLDS) or that last week-and-a-half where the other team goes 8-0 and you went 4-3 and needed to go 5-2. Sometimes, they're lost early in the season where you have an opportunity to push for that sweep but you've already got two out of three and you're just not quite there with that killer instinct as a team.
"You know what that makes us? Human. But that's something that in 2016 we had. And the guys who have been here that whole time acknowledged that -- from Game 1 through Game 162, we had that sense of urgency, there was no complacency and we were completely on a mission and we showed up to assert ourselves and win every single day.
"We have to own this. We have to be honest about this. It's been a little bit different since 2016. We have to get back to that."
Epstein will lead an offseason that could ultimately push the Cubs to their next World Series championship or create more of the same questions. He willingly accepted the blame for the lost season of $126-million right-hander Yu Darvish, the lack of command from right-hander Tyler Chatwood and the missed second half for injury-prone closer Brandon Morrow. The Cubs were left filling their voids.
In turn, Epstein found himself looking back at those matinee games on a getaway day in which the Cubs seemed ready to board the charter before taking the field. The killer instinct from the past was suddenly gone, and those games made a difference in the end.
The stars of free agency, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado will find their names tied to the Cubs this offseason that's now a month longer than his franchise has come to know the last four years. But for Epstein, change must come from culture.
On the first day of this offseason, just hours after the Cubs' season had ended, Epstein set the tone.
"This year, it manifested that we had chance after chance to put away this division, and we didn't do it," he said. "So, we have to own it. I don't think there's some sort of fatal flaw at all in the clubhouse. I just think we have to be honest about it.
"As Jon Lester said, maybe it will be good for us, because if you just show up, playing it cool, knowing you're talented, knowing it's a long season and trusting that the talent will manifest over the course of 162, sometimes you end up one game short, and that's not who we are, it's not who we want to be, it's not what we're all about.
"Maybe that feeling in the clubhouse last night, which was a whole lot of pissed off and disappointed and frustrated, will be our rallying cry for next year.
"We will remember that feeling of falling one game short and try to apply it 162 times next season."
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago's sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.
