Cubs owner: Maddon hire shows we’re committed to winning

Cubs owner Tom Ricketts can’t complain about the place his team now finds itself in.

The stadium renovation is underway, the Cubs have the best farm system in baseball with financial flexibility to pursue top free agents, and earlier this week hired one of the best managers in Joe Maddon.

Life is good in Wrigleyville.

“We feel like a lot of the process of retooling and rebuilding the organization has started to pay off and a lot of it is behind us,” Ricketts told 670 The Score’s “The Mully and Hanley Show” on Thursday. “We’re excited about having a great new manager.

“It’s a big step for the organization to bring in a manager that we think is one of the best in the game. We have a lot of good young players. We have a good system. We want to have one of the better managers and I think it shows that we’re committed to winning. We have a pretty exciting two years ahead of us.”

Some other topics Ricketts touched on:

-No news on the television deal front. Ricketts called this the next big financial change for the Cubs. “Despite the ratings dip that occurred the last few years because our teams haven’t been competitive, the Cubs are a very desirable partner and a lot of people are interested in working with us. We’ll hopefully have some answers on that soon.”

-With regard to extending Theo Epstein’s contract, Ricketts said: “Obviously I think the world of Theo and his team. He’s got a couple years left on his contract, and when he’s ready to talk about an extension, we’ll be ready talk.”