End of the day Theo Epstein built a winner, a World Series winner and a team that went to the NLCS 3 years. He has three World Series rings to his name. He rebuild of the Chicago Cubs was nothing short of impressive regardless of how much they tanked for high picks....you still have to hit with those picks. The Brewers will tell you how hard that is. Everyone will mention how anyone can run a high payroll to success/World Series, but that simply is just wrong. It may be easier and allow more room for error, but it still takes a lot Did he kind of ruin the "dynasty"? No, I don't think so. Looking at it I don't think he could have done things differently to keep the predicted dynasty going. HOWEVER, I do think he did a pretty solid job ruining their sustainability of success/being a yearly force. I think they got a bit too focused on trying to 'win now' and getting that second championship. Jose Quintana just started a downward spiral of iffy moves, their success started to decline, and they just pressed more. Their downfall can be summarized very simply: They refused to have an off/down year and quickly started making too many poor moves. They should be glad the end of this year is ending in complete disaster instead of ending up one game out of the postseason. If that had happened they probably would have just kept pressing poor and risky moves this winter. They need to take a step back and think more logically.