The Cubs are ready to move on from the Lou Browns who have populated the manager job under Theo Epstein, president of Baseball Operations, and get a major leaguer.

Joe Maddon, the former manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, was unveiled as the Cubs’ manager for the next five years at $25 million Monday at a news conference held at The Cubby Bear. For that kind of money, the Cubs definitely aren’t getting a Lou Brown, even if Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer did meet him at an RV Park in Florida. Maddon knows it, and you better bet he believes it.

“For me, I’m going to be talking playoffs next year…,” Maddon said at a new conference streamed on Cubs.com. “I can’t go to spring training and say any other thing. I’m incapable of doing that. Why would you even report?

“It’s all about setting your standards, your goals high because the problem if you don’t set them high enough is that you might actually hit your mark, and that’s not a good thing. So, we’re going to set our mark high. And I’m going to talk playoffs, I’m going to talk World Series this year, I promise you. … And I’m going to believe it.”

You know times are changing for the reigning NL Central cellar dwellers when you no longer have to google who the new manager is. The last time the Cubs got a big-name manager was forever ago, if you consider 2007 a long time ago.

The hiring of Maddon is a great move. He knows how to win with young players and a — relatively speaking — cash-poor organization. He took the Rays to the 2008 World Series, and his tenure lasted from 2006 until 2014.

Everyone thinks it’s a great move, even the gamblers. The Cubs went from 50/1 to 20/1 to win the World Series, according to betting website Bovada.

You can argue the ethics of the Cubs telling former manager Rick Renteria, who did a fine job, that he’d be back for the 2015 season and then dumping him, which is a terrible thing to do. Renteria was fine, but he was another transitional manager. He was hired to get the Cubs from point B to point C after Dale Sveum was hired to get them from point A to point B.

Maddon is the guy who will hopefully get the Cubs to Point D, which is a World Series win. The pieces are there. Jorge Soler, Starlin Castro, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Addison Russell and now Maddon are what they need.

This is the signature hire Epstein and company has been promising. Add a solid starter off free agency and the Cubs might just be actual contenders on the field. Maddon believes it; why not you?