Theo is going to blow this thing up like he did in Boston. The guy is great at establishing a culture and he made some great trades early on. For some reason he just doesnt seem to be able to sustain success. Between the strange decision to not spend and the decision to not extend Joe, there has to be a lot of tension between Theo/Ricketts/Joe. This might be a blow it up midseason kind of year.
I dont think it going to be a major blow up unless he plans on staying and receives an extension, he has 2 yrs left on current deal..
So, a major blowup would mean restocking system because there really no more solid young hitters left in free agency given these guys are all signing extensions now.
So, 2 yrs not enough time to rebuild a team.
I personally think they didn't fire Maddon because they didn't want the backlash from fans media etc for firing a successful manager who won them a WS plus their not going to pay mega bucks on 2 .managers, assuming the replacement will be a highly named guy like Girardi.. theyd be better off waiting til inseason and first sign of struggle and team falling, theyll pull that trigger, like Hawks did with Q.
As far as players goes, I think their basically giving the core this last opportunity to make or break themselves and depending on where their at theyll address that situation near deadline or offseason..
Plus with the ones on last year of contract, like Zobrist and Hamels theyll be making moves and signings that will replace them on roster
So, yes of course they want to win but I think this season more of an evaluation / cant think of the word but like a in between year to basically get through and make changes where needed at end of year
