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The man who led 2 longshot teams to titles against all of the odds rebuilding them from the ground up is going to work in Major League Baseball's Commissioners office.  47 year old Theo Epstein who broke the long standing "curse of the Babe" won a World Series title as the Boston Red Sox General Manager in 2004 and 2007. In 2016, Epstein broke a drought of more than 100 years since a Cubs team won the World Series when he also rebuilt that Cubs team as the General Manager. 

Now, Epstein will take over as a consultant to "on-field matters" with emphasis on over looking rule changes. Baseball is interested in making dramatic rule changes to create more action and pace in the game.

Commissioner Rob Manfred says Epstein is the most qualified person for this new special consultant role to help MLB with rule change. Epstein will be supervised by the Commissioner and the owners competition committee. 

It is my opinion that the Epstein hire was one of the greatest moves for Baseball in years!  Epstein has a brilliant baseball mind. His ability to lead both the Red Sox and the Cubs to World Series titles was something that many men had spent a lifetime trying to do, by just leading one of those teams to a title. Yet, Epstein did it with both teams and he is not even 50 years old yet!  

It is my opinion that Epstein will excel in this role and this will lead him to other opportunities in the Commissioners office that will help make the game better. Epstein's ability to work with analytics and ideas and acquire the right talent and chemistry and manager to lead teams to titles multiple times takes the mind of a great innovator. I believe that we do not realize at this time just how brilliant and innovative Epstein's Baseball mind is yet. Commissioner Manfred has been talking about speeding up the game and making it more entertaining he has hired a man that I believe will be tackling more than just rules if he is not stolen away by another MLB team in the years to come. We already know what Epstein can do for one team, now imagine what he can do for multiple teams in an era that the game's popularity has suffered with the younger population. It is so bad that before the Covid 19 break out when fans were allowed to go to a game. You would see fans playing on their phones and not even watching the game, something that you just don't see at a fast paced Basketball game or even between plays or on a timeout of a football game. 

It is my opinion that Theo Epstein will help make changes to baseball for the good which will be felt now and years from now. In recent weeks Manfred has done some great things for the game by re-aligning the Minor Leagues and deciding to include all Negro League stats as part of MLB history.. His hiring of Theo Epstein was another great thing. Baseball has a big job ahead in America and Theo Epstein is a step in the right direction for great things to come. 

This opinion was submitted by Nick LaCapria on 1/14/21