In a wide-ranging interview this week, Chicago Cubs president Theo Epstein addressed why the team hasn't been able to contend while rebuilding.

Epstein said until the club can generate new revenue, it is placed in an "untenable position" and they are "fighting upstream" against teams that get competitive balance draft picks, but are simultaneously unable to increase payroll to keep pace with the top of the division. 

"It's not a choice," he said of Chicago's payroll level. "We are not making a fundamental choice to only focus on the future. We're not withholding dollars from this year's team. We are spending every dollar that we have on this baseball team. We maxed out our payroll last year and we maxed out our payroll this year. It's not a choice.

"It's not like we're making a conscious decision to say, 'Hey, let's withhold $15-20 million from the 2012 or 2013 payroll because we don't think we're quite good enough or it's not worth it to spend it there. Let's save it for a rainy day. Or let's save it so we can get that free agent in 2016.' The baseball department is spending every dollar that is allocated to baseball operations. Yeah, we're spending it in the draft and we're spending it in the minor leagues. There's only so much you can spend there. We're also spending every dollar we have available on the Major League payroll."