It is all relative. He is with the Red Sox now. No its not relative. You said the Cubs are tight with spending and they have the 6th biggest payroll in baseball, 3rd last year. Sorry if the Cubs didn't shell out an extra 20 mil during a period where ownership changed and inherited an extremely flawed and overpaid team. 20 mil probably wouldn't have made this team a playoff team so theres no point in adding more high priced and potentially disasterous contracts. Rickets did the right thing and invested the money in scouting and the draft. Epstein would love smart ownership like that, possibly because it reminds him of the team he's currently with and not the bumbling band of morons that have symbolized the cubs front office for several decades. His wording was flawed, but his point stands. Epstein has no motivation to jump ship. He has a situation that is already good. Everyone credits him with making it good, and while the Cubs' payroll is high the one he has now is higher than high. why leave? His wording wasn't really flawed at all. The point is, Epstein is going to be taking a downgrade if he leaves Boston, period. Now he may wish to leave to pursue another challenge (heck he did that already once), but his next gig isn't going to have all of the advantages he enjoys in Boston. It most certainly is flawed. He said that the Cubs are tight with money, and they most definitely are not. Just because they don't spend as much as the Red Sox doesn't make them tight.