IF THE CUBS ARE DOOMED BY FLIMSY TRADES, WHAT ARE RICKETTS AND HOYER DOING?
Fans wanted them to acquire Eugenio Suarez, Mason Miller and Shane Bieber, but in the same week Hoyer received a multi-year extension, he did cautious work for an owner, who might not keep Kyle Tucker
When Jed Hoyer uses the word “calculus,” he doesn’t understand Cubdom. These folks stare at a season from February to July to September and wait for the usual cracks. How many times have they sat through trading deadlines and cursed out the general manager? This would be the team’s 116th failure in 117 years, and while Hoyer was there when they finally won in 2016, he can’t be mentioning mathematical goop.
Why didn’t he move top prospects, such as outfielder Owen Caissie, when the National League is his to win? “Whether it’s in this offseason or the past, certainly we’ve moved top prospects,” Hoyer said. “But that’s the calculus that we have to make — ultimately, what is the impact this is making?”
Rather, fans want to know how many wins will turn to losses in October? Only days after owner Tom Ricketts gave him a multi-year extension, Hoyer suddenly became Larry Himes and other front-office bosses who whiffed when it mattered. He eyed a slugger in Eugenio Suarez, who has 36 home runs, but he was snagged by Seattle. He wanted a lead starting pitcher? Shane Bieber, a former Cy Young Award winner, was acquired by Toronto while other teams demanded — a capital letter — Prospects. Relievers? San Diego, in line for an NL wild-card berth like the Cubs, found a smoking closer in Mason Miller, while the New York Yankees found David Bednar. The Padres gave up 10 prospects in trades.
Jed? He settled for utilityman Willi Castro, relievers Andrew Kittredge and Taylor Rogers and a former White Sox pitcher in Michael Soroka. These were not moves that turned the Cubs into pennant favorites. No one is more excited than folks in Seattle, who can watch Suarez mash baseballs with Cal Raleigh. How about Houston, which brought back Carlos Correa? The Mets found center fielder Cedric Mullins? Texas added a starting pitcher in Merrill Kelly. Even Tampa Bay overcame Hoyer in bidding for Sox starter Adrian Houser. Jed?
Is it possible Ricketts, who has yet to offer near $500 million to Kyle Tucker, has ordered Hoyer to keep Caissie in the organization in case the all-around star leaves in free agency? Does the chance of a 2027 labor impasse restrict Ricketts from spending gobs for Tucker when, of course, he’d rather not spend a half-billion bucks anyway? Are the Cubs guilty of looking ahead when they should be entrenched on August, September and October?
Hoyer didn’t make a bid attractive when Miami kept Sandy Alcantara, Minnesota kept Joe Ryan, Pittsburgh kept Mitch Keller and Washington kept MacKenzie Gore. Again, the Red Sox won four championships between 2004 and 2018, as Hoyer knows. The Cubs have won only one since 1908. They needed to wheel and deal and make something happen in a league where the Dodgers and Shohei Ohtani are struggling, and the Milwaukee Brewers have the best record. No one cares about the future of Owen Caissie.
“The way I would say it: Very few rental starters, effectively no starters that had one year of control after this, and then the controllable starters, none of those guys changed hands,” Hoyer said. “Obviously we didn’t acquire them, and no one else did either. The asking price was something we couldn’t do to the future. … In the end, the asking price on those guys would have been so detrimental to our future that we decided against it.’’
Already, Cubdom is aiming at Ricketts and Hoyer as the seasonal bums. They created a chance by acquiring Tucker and turning Pete Crow-Armstrong into an MVP candidate. Did they just blow that chance? “I feel good about what we did,” Hoyer said. “I think that we kind of provided insurance in a number of different ways on the roster, and I think we have a really good team, one of our focuses was making sure that we had the depth in order to withstand injuries that we may have during the second half.”
Insurance. Calculus.
Try saying this, “We’ve beefed up and plan on winning the World Series.”
Never.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.