The Chicago Cubs confirmed Thursday that the club has offered its vacant manager position to Dale Sveum, the Milwaukee Brewers hitting coach.
Sveum was offered the job after meeting with the Cubs for a second time at the general managers' meeting in Brew City.
The team will hold a press conference Friday to introduce him.
As a player, Sveum spent 12 seasons in the majors, five of them with the Brewers. He later became their hitting coach but was their interim manager at the end of 2008 when he won the Wild Card.
He gave an indication on his expectations during a meeting with the media last week.
"When you deal with the Cubs and any major market, you're expected to win that year. You're not expected to be rebuilding or doing anything other than winning the World Series. That's anybody's goal, and it's obvious that it's very important to the city of Chicago and the Chicago Cubs and Theo Epstein to win the World Series, not to just compete and play .500 baseball or something like that," he said.
Mike Maddux and former Red Sox manager Terry Francona were also up for the job, but Francona took himself out of the running earlier in the day.
"I'm not sure I was the right person for that job right now and I just think that you've got to be all in, and it's got to be the right fit. It's got to be the right fit for them too," he said during a phone interview with Chicago's ESPN 1000 radio.
Maddux, who was believed to be the front-runner, pulled out for family reasons and went home to Texas where he is the pitching coach for the Rangers.
New president of baseball operations Theo Epstein fired former manager Mike Quade earlier this month.
