(670 The Score) Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein set the tone for his team after the unfulfilling and sudden end of its 2018 season. Now, he's continuing that as Opening Day looms just more than three weeks away.
The Cubs hope to attack this season with a greater sense of urgency after losing the National League Central title to the Brewers in a Game 163 and dropping the NL wild-card game one night later to end 2018.
"The sense of urgency will come more on the mental side through a recognition that every game counts," Epstein said on the McNeil & Parkins Show on Wednesday afternoon. "That this is a really tough division and that we have to show up instead of relying on our talent to get us where we want to go in the end (and) as we heard a lot last year, that we'll be fine in the end, we're the Cubs, it's a long season, relax, we always get there in the end. These days, that doesn't get it done. We saw what happened last year with that type of attitude.
"Every single day is an opportunity to step on somebody's throat and to separate ourselves from the division. We're not going to give away getaway days, we're not going to settle for two out of three, we're not going to ease into the season. We're showing up to assert ourselves from game one through game 162. I think that's how you use a sense of urgency the right way.
"Let's hope that we can look back many, many months from now and say that our actions revealed that there was a real sense of urgency."
For the Cubs to get back into the playoffs and enjoy a deep run, they will first have to withstand a daunting division that includes the reigning champion Brewers and improved teams in the Cardinals, Pirates and Reds.
Closer by committee on tap for Cubs early in season
There's pressure on everybody with the Cubs to improve this season. Epstein is confident that it will come with that urgency.
But what if the results don't follow? Will this indeed become a season of reckoning?
"That could be a crossroads time where if our core hasn't developed the way we certainly expect them to or hasn't bounced back the way we certainly expect them to, that could be a time where we ask and answer some hard questions about do we have what we believe we have," Epstein said. "And if we don't, then there would certainly be an open-mindedness to some significant transactions at that time.
"That just underscores the importance of showing up with a sense of urgency this year and to be adding and not considering significant changes. I think everyone here gets that. That's what I meant by it's a year of reckoning. Our players sense that, they all want to be here, they all want to win together and all want to continue to win together.
"We've had almost unprecedented continuity, and that's a great thing. But that comes with great responsibility. That comes with the responsibility to show up and put your best foot forward every year, which we just about have averaging 97 wins a year. But we had a misstep at the end of last year. Now, it's on us to correct."
