Cubs GM Jim Hendry signs 4-year contract extension

By Paul Sullivan |Chicago Tribune reporter

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Jim Hendry could get at least four more chances to get the Cubs to the World Series after agreeing Monday to a four-year contract extension through 2012.

Although the Cubs are in the process of being sold, the decision to bring back the general manager was a no-brainer for Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney, who got the go-ahead from Tribune Co. Chairman Sam Zell.

"From Sam's perspective, this was an easy one to make," Kenney said.

Now Hendry's job is to get the Cubs from being a solid regular-season team to one that can win in the postseason.

After the three-game sweep by the Dodgers in the best-of-five NL Division Series, outfielder Alfonso Soriano said the Cubs were "a very good team for [162] games" but were not "put together" for a short series.

Hendry rejected that notion Monday, saying the Cubs were indeed built for October but just didn't get the job done.

"I don't know how you differentiate between [building] a team for April to September, and then you try to build something different for October," he said. "We had as good a team as there was in the National League. [We] had the best record. We just played bad baseball for three days. We stunk last year against the Diamondbacks [in the division series]."

Hendry, Kenney and the baseball operations staff are in Arizona for organizational meetings.

"We're all going to put our heads together to see if there are other ways we can improve the club," Hendry said. "All you can do is try to get in (the postseason) every year and keep working on trying to get better once you get in there.

"There's a whole history in professional sports of clubs that kept getting close, kept getting close and finally they knocked that door in. And that's what we're going to try to do."

Hendry has been at the helm for three division titles in his six years, but he has watched the Cubs lose nine straight games in the postseason since taking a 3-1 lead over Florida in the 2003 NLCS.

With a four-year deal, Kenney is tying a potential new owner to the man who helped change the perception of the Cubs organization. While there's little doubt Hendry would have found another job had he left the Cubs after his option year in 2009, he had no intentions of seeking greener pastures.

"From the day I arrived here and was fortunate enough to be given this job as general manager six years ago, I had no desire to go elsewhere," he said.

Kenney said Hendry is "the face of the franchise on the baseball side" and that he and his lieutenants have the organization in place "to do what it needs to do. And we all know what that is."

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