Theo Epstein: Cubs Must 'Choose The Risk You're Comfortable With'

(CBS) As the GM meetings continue in Boca Raton, Fla., the Cubs and president of baseball operations Theo Epstein have been open about their desire to acquire more starting pitching.

It could come in the form of free agency or the trade market -- or both. It's Epstein's job to figure out the best approach for the Cubs.

Epstein admits the difficult part is weighing the downside of every potential move, but he can't be afraid.

"You always worry about too big a percentage of your payroll tied up in any one or two players," Epstein said in an interview on the Spiegel and Goff Show on Wednesday morning. "And obviously with pitching, there's more attrition with pitching than there is in any one area. So it's obviously a concern. But every possible move has risk and has reward, and there's no button that you can press that makes you better in a really impactful way without some meaningful downside. Sometimes the downside is paralyzing your payroll in future years in a way that's really hard for you to come to terms with or hard for you to fathom or a way that might be unacceptable in the end and you walk away from it. Or it might come from giving up a huge chunk of your young player inventory or your farm system or you're ruining all that depth and then you're in a position where you don't have that talent you want coming in future years or it might take away from your big league club in order to add a different piece.

"There's a cost to every addition, and you have to come to terms with that and you just have to pick and choose the risk you're comfortable with and know that you're going to have sleepless nights no matter what. You're going to have sleepless nights in April after you sign that free agent and he goes out and debuts and you want to make sure he's healthy and good and adjusts well. But you also have sleepless nights when you give up really good players and watch them (play well) for another organization. That's just the cost of doing business. You have to just accept that and focus on what it means for your club and your organization going forward."

Zack Greinke, David Price and Jordan Zimmermann are three of the big-name pitchers who the Cubs will talk with in free agency.

"We do want to add every single possible win that we can to the 2016 Cubs," Epstein said. "That's going to be extremely important."

Listen to his full interview below.