Epstein meets with Zambrano
Talk about a non-story.
Cubs fans can get worked up about Monday's meeting between president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and Carlos Zambrano, and what Epstein said after it, all the want. It means absolutely nothing. Of course Epstein wasn't going to run to the media that day and tell the world he is definitely going to rid the Cubs of Zambrano by Opening Day. It's called not unnecessarily lowering the trade value of your players. You could also call it doing the exact opposite of what Jim Hendry would do, which of course means it's exactly what a smart general manager would do.
"We told him we would give him the right to earn his way back to being a Cub, that nothing would be given to him," Epstein told the Chicago Tribune. "He could earn his way back through very hard work this winter, through rebuilding relationships man-to-man with all his teammates and through other steps we discussed."
Maybe Epstein means what he says, or maybe he wants other teams to think he means it so they fall all over themselves trying to trade their superstars and top prospects for Zambrano. My guess is some version of the latter. I bet Zambrano's gone by Opening Day, and I bet Epstein doesn't go public with negative comments about him, at least until after he is off the team.
