The Chicago Cubs, as of this writing, are in second place in the NL Central Division, two games behind the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers. They also happen to have the second best record in all of baseball.
There’ve been a ton of positives up until this point in the season, but many of those pluses have recently been obscured by the fallout following a trade deadline that didn’t bring in a marquee name or, really, a full-on solution to some of the team’s biggest needs.
After the July 31 deadline hit, the Cubs had only managed to pick up back-of-rotation starter Michael Soroka, relievers Taylor Rogers and Andrew Kittredge, and infielder/outfielder Willi Castro.
Jed Hoyer under fire, finds ally in ownership
Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer took immediate heat from a frustrated Cubs fandom which had gone through weeks of hearing that the team would be “all-in” when it came to acquiring missing pieces to what they hoped to be a championship puzzle. Many blamed the front office’s conservative deadline approach on Hoyer playing things safe after signing a multi-year contract extension days earlier.
Among Hoyer’s staunchest defenders, however, is Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts.
“We had a good trade deadline,” Ricketts told The Athletic on Friday. “We have a really good team, and we added to it. I think it’s going to be a great couple months. When you look at the guys that are coming in through the trades, and look at the guys that are coming off the injured list, I think we’re really going to be in good shape for the rest of the season and into the postseason.”
Were the Chicago Cubs aggressive enough?
As for Hoyer not being aggressive enough in pursuit of front-of-rotation starters and high-leverage relievers, Ricketts also had his president’s back.
“It’s really not a matter of: ‘Are you aggressive or not?’” Ricketts added. “It’s like, ‘What’s available? And what’s the cost?’ I know that Jed did look at some of the higher-profile players, some of the controllable pitchers. There was a lot of discussions going on around that. He has thousands of discussions during the trade deadline.
“What you might call ‘aggressive’ — if something were to fit, he would have done it. But nothing really fit for us. It’s just the way it fell out.”
Hoyer’s past, present, and future
Hoyer came to the Cubs in 2011, serving as the general manager under Theo Epstein. In 2021, after Epstein’s departure, he moved up to the president position.
The team has yet to make the playoffs under his leadership, but the exec is credited for rebuilding the team’s farm system via the great trade-off of 2021, which saw him deal away several established Cubs stars, as well as through efforts to refocus scouting and player development.
Coming into this season, Hoyer pulled the trigger on a 3-for-1 trade with the Houston Astros to bring in right fielder Kyle Tucker. He also made savvy free agent buys in Matthew Boyd and Carson Kelly, who have greatly exceeded expectations.
All of this, according to Ricketts, contributed to the decision to re-sign Hoyer and let him continue on with his mission.
“Everyone knew when he (took over) in ‘21 that we were a little thin,” Ricketts said. “We didn’t really have a core. We didn’t really have a system. And we knew it was going to take a while to get back to that.
“The way he’s methodically gone about developing the right players and bringing them up, looking for the right guys to add, being thoughtful about who he signs and when he signs them, all those things have added up…He’s had a good first four years. And then of course going into this season, when we got off to a great start, that just spoke to his decision-making and his judgment, and so we were confident a few weeks ago that an extension was the right thing to do.”
Chicago Cubs top prospect speaks out about anxiety and relief on day of trade deadline
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1 Comment
Maybe they should get rid of the manager