Cubs fans thought they were shown a light at the end of the tunnel this past week when the franchise hired former Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon.

Even before the hire, I was hearing Cubs fans say that if the team hired Maddon, they’d be playoff bound next year.

Sorry Cubs fans, but your light at the end of the tunnel is more than a year away.

Maddon became the Rays’ manager in 2005. The 2005 Rays were very similar to the 2014 Cubs: full of young prospects but missing a few pieces. The only thing the Cubs have that the Rays didn’t is a lot of money to spend in the offseason.

In 2011, the Cubs hired former Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, and so far he has done a good job bringing in young prospects, and the franchise is set up to be better than it has been in recent memory, as long as they can bring in one or two big names during free agency. Improving the team’s rotation is particularly important. The Cubs lack a true ace, but hope to bring one in. James Shields is a strong candidate, due to his history with Joe Maddon in Tampa Bay, but as it always is, free agency is a gamble.

The problem here, though, is not whether the Cubs will be good, but whether they’ll be good enough to make the postseason. The Cubs play in what is probably the deepest division in baseball, the NL Central. Every year there are at least three teams vying for the division title.

This past year it was Pirates, Brewers and Cardinals, with the Cardinals taking the title. In 2013, it was the Pirates, the Reds and the Cardinals, with the Cardinals taking the title. In 2012, the Reds ran away with it, but the Cardinals squeaked into the second wild card spot with the Brewers a few games behind.

The Brewers and Pirates aren’t going to disappear next season, and the Cardinals have been one of the top teams in baseball for more than a decade. The Cardinals are coming off an NLCS birth and return a healthy Michael Wacha and Yadier Molina, and a well-rested Adam Wainwright. With John Lackey currently signing for a veteran minimum, the Cardinals freed up some cap space to make some moves in free agency.

As a Cardinals fan, I hope the Cubs improve, so what should be one of the best rivalries in baseball isn’t a joke, like it has been in the last few years.

The Cubs are going into next season full of young players who don’t know what a tight division race feels like with a new manager. It’s going to take some adjusting. Maddon didn’t take the Rays to the playoffs until 2008. Not even one of the best managers in baseball can completely flip around a franchise in one offseason.

Lastly, the Cubs are the Cubs; a team that has not won the World Series since 1908 and hasn’t even appeared in it since 1945.

The universe toys with Cubs fans by allowing them all significant false hope before ruthlessly ripping it from the franchise’s grasp at the last moment.

Cubs’ fans have a reason to think there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but it will take at least three years for them to reach it. Just don’t be surprised if that tunnel collapses halfway through.

Cole is a freshman in DGS. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @cole_Henke.