Cubs Fire Sveum After 2 Season
30 Sep, 2013
The Cubs fired Sveum on Monday after finishing last in the NL Central for the first time in seven years, ending a two-year run that produced more losses than any other stretch in the team’s cursed history.
“It’s absolutely imperative that we create the best environment possible for young players to come up here, continue to learn, continue to develop and thrive at the big league level and win, ultimately,” Epstein said during an afternoon news conference. “And that’s not an easy thing to do.
“A big part of the reason why we’re here today is because we took a good hard look at that and we decided that we needed to try to get it right before they come up.”
Sveum was among Epstein’s first hires after the executive came over from the Boston Red Sox in 2011. He had little experience as a manager when he agreed to take the job, and he knew the Cubs were at the very beginning of a top-to-bottom overhaul that they hoped would transform them into perennial contenders.
He just thought he would get more time to make it work.
“You come in and you get a job like this and you want to see it through and so you’re very disappointed you didn’t get to really get anything started,” Sveum said in a parking lot outside Wrigley Field.
Sveum, who had one year left on his contract, said he thought he was fine before Epstein said during Chicago’s trip to Milwaukee in mid-September that the manager was being evaluated.
Chicago went 61-101 in Sveum’s first season, and then stumbled down the stretch in 2013 while some of its best players were traded away for prospects. The Cubs dropped 41 of their final 59 games, including six of their final seven, finishing with a 66-96 record.
AP
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