The clock may be ticking on Jed Hoyers’ time as the Cubs‘ President of Baseball operations. With this being the last year of his contract, the pressure is on for the Cubs to reclaim their place as postseason contenders. Hoyer, who has been at the helm since Theo Espestein’s resignation in 2020, has yet to make the postseason in his four seasons in charge. While he is given some grace, given that rebuilds don’t happen overnight, the time is now for his Cubs to start competing again.
The controversy of Jed Hoyer
In his first season as president, Hoyer made headlines by trading away the core of the 2016 team. At the time, this move crushed Cubs fans, but it was understood that the team needed a reset. Since then, Hoyer has done a great job of rebuilding the Cubs farm system ranking at or near the top of all publications for years. He has married this with good free-agent signings and savvy trades such as Michael Busch to give the Cubs a good roster on paper.
But unfortunately, being good on paper doesn’t always equate to wins. The Cubs have not won more than 84 games since 2018, when they still relied on the prime of Rizzo, Bryant, and Baez. Those days are long gone. This team, hand-picked by Hoyer, is expected to take the Cubs back to the glory days of the mid-2010s.
The pressure is on this season
In a recent interview with the Athletic, Jed Hoyer said: “I feel like for us, we don’t have a lot of margin for error. We need guys to improve, we need to stay healthy, and we need to play clean baseball.” He also said “We have a really good defensive team, we should run the bases well we need to do all those things really well. We can’t sort of muddle through and just show up and make the postseason. We have to have a really good season to do that.”
This quote implies that the Cubs and Hoyer have their eyes set beyond just making the postseason as a fringe wildcard team. Their goal seems to be winning the division and a playoff series. The Cubs were mediocre last season, but advanced analytics suggested they were a better team than their record implied. But with additions to the lineup, rotation, and bullpen, the Cubs should ideally be better. The NL Central is by no means an elite division. Their only real competition for the division appears to be the Brewers. Milwaukee won the division last season but lost two of their three best players this offseason.
Hoyer also took his biggest swing as Cubs president when he traded for superstar Kyle Tucker this offseason. In return, he had to give prospect Cam Smith, third baseman Isaac Parades, and pitcher Hayden Wesneski. This move was one of the biggest trades of the offseason. This is a signal from the Cubs that they believe they have entered their contention window,
Hoyer seems to sense the looming pressure to perform this season. If the Cubs don’t perform up to expectations, it could spell the end of the Hoyer regime in Chicago.
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