Jed Hoyer Reiterates ‘Answers Have to Come From Within’ as Cubs Do Poor Job of Trying Not to Suck
Monday night’s loss to the Giants immediately entered the sad pantheon of the worst Cubs games this season, which is why the primary responses were incredulity and morbid mirth. It’s gotten to the point where many expect this team to find new and different ways to lose, but it’s still amazing when they manage to top themselves in making good on those fears. More of the same may be in store for the next several weeks at least because it doesn’t sound like big changes are coming.
“The idea of making significant transactions in mid-June is unbelievably difficult and, at times, just impossible,” Jed Hoyer told reporters prior to the latest debacle. “I just think the focus has to be, ‘How do we get these guys going?’”
That’s right in line with what he told 670 The Score last week and it would be foolish to think he’d say anything different, but it’s still frustrating. And though Hoyer admitted that adding a superstar bat would theoretically help, he was clear that those moves aren’t available at this point of the season. As such, the only way to get to the point where adding such a bat makes sense is by getting the guys they’ve already got to wake up.
“We had a really good offense last year,” Hoyer said. “We had a really good offense in April. Since then, we have not hit, period. And no one player is going to change that. This collective group has to figure this out. That doesn’t mean there won’t be additions, but the answers have to come from within.
“There’s no reason to believe this group suddenly forgot how to hit. But certainly, it’s been a longer down spell than expected. I think everybody goes through ups and downs in a season, this is a much longer trough than we ever expected, and we have to get out of it.”
They’re running out of levers to pull on the North Side, but one option might be to try someone different in the 9th inning. Héctor Neris has been reliable only in the sense that he’s been unreliable, and he blew the save last night as the Cubs spoiled some big home runs late in the game. Despite the reliever’s struggles, replacing Neris doesn’t seem to be part of the plan.
“I wouldn’t anticipate doing that,” Craig Counsell said during his postgame presser.
Even understanding his extremely limited options, this doesn’t strike me as a great strategy. It’s like the check engine light came on and Counsell’s response was to cover it with black tape rather than getting it checked out. After all, repairs are a lot more expensive than just ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away. That seems to be what the organization is doing on the whole, so maybe it’s just a Cubs thing.
There’s really not much else to say on this matter without devolving into anger, so I’ll just leave off here and hope something changes. Lord knows that’s about our only recourse at this point.
