Theo Epstein and the Chicago Cubs have agreed to a five-year, nearly $20 million deal for him to join the team, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney Wednesday.
The $20 million includes the Cubs picking up the conclusion bonus in Epstein's Red Sox deal, sources said.
Epstein has been to Chicago on two separate occasions to meet with Cubs officials, sources said. He was Red Sox general manager for nine seasons and had one year remaining on his current deal in Boston.
According to sources, Major League Baseball expressed great concern over the compensation package because they do not want this deal to affect how other teams compete in the market for front-office personnel.
A source with knowledge of the talks told ESPN's Karl Ravech Tuesday that the compensation would involve prospects and/or cash, but no major league players would be part of the deal, following traditional precedent.
WEEI, which first reported an agreement between Epstein and the Cubs, said that a title has not yet been agreed upon, but it has been assumed that he will get a higher title than what he had on the Red Sox, executive vice president/general manager.
Since the possibility of Epstein going to the Cubs first surfaced in August, Red Sox ownership has downplayed the possibility because Epstein is under contract with the Red Sox through 2012. But at no point have Red Sox owners John Henry or Tom Werner ever squashed the talk completely, nor has Epstein definitively ruled out the move.
Neither the Cubs nor Red Sox have formally acknowledged that the Red Sox granted permission to the Cubs to interview Epstein, but an industry source said Tuesday that Cubs owner Tom Ricketts spoke with Epstein last week and that Epstein met with Cubs president Crane Kenney in Chicago last weekend.
Source: ESPN
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