Jed Hoyer Looking to Get Creative, ‘Find Value on Margins’ as GM Meetings Get Underway
Monday was the first night of the GM Meetings in San Antonio and Jed Hoyer was there to talk with media members about the Cubs’ direction. It’s actually more about the specific route they’ll take, as the only choice they have is to move forward with their win totals from the past four seasons. Really the last five full seasons, with the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign standing as their only playoff appearance since the 2018 Wild Card.
The Cubs haven’t won a postseason game since the 2017 NLCS, when they were unceremoniously dispatched by the Dodgers. They have scored just three combined runs in their last four playoff games spanning three different trips, making the World Series championship feel even longer than eight years ago. Now they have to do what it takes to get back to the postseason and, ideally, score more than one run at best.
Though I’m not particularly stoked about Cody Bellinger returning just for what it does to the roster’s flexibility, it at least provides something of a safety net for the front office.
“Now we know what our roster looks like and we can go about building the team,” Hoyer told Sahadev Sharma. “Before that, there was some uncertainty and now it adds clarity. Spend the next four days talking to teams, talking to agents and get a feel for the market.”
There’s a lot of work to do because the 40-man is still full even after Yency Almonte, Christian Bethancourt, Colten Brewer, and Enoli Paredes cleared waivers and elected free agency. Hoyer isn’t going to be talking about a $600+ million deal with Juan Soto and probably not a $200 million pact with Corbin Burnes, but even smaller additions will require moves to open spots. Whether it’s trading prospects to land impact talent or non-tendering arb-eligible veterans, the Cubs will have to make several personnel decisions in the coming days.
Most of those will be relatively inconsequential, just procedural moves meant to shuffle guys around out of necessity. Far be it for Hoyer to ever say much about his true intentions, but it does sound an awful lot like they may do what many fans fear and just run it back with a few tweaks. He said he was very pleased with the way the Cubs played in the second half and mentioned after the season that the goal is to foster an environment in which their current players can perform at a high level more consistently.
“We’re looking to be creative, if we can find value on the margins to be able to do that,” Hoyer explained. “You’re always trying to be creative and there’s room for it this year.”
I probably should have put a trigger warning before that last quote because “value on the margins” surely set off more than a few of you. Perhaps it’s best to lean into the creative aspect there, which is Hoyerese for targeted aggressiveness. As disappointing as they’ve been, the Cubs really aren’t that far removed from a 90-win team. What happens if the bullpen doesn’t suffer a slew of injuries and they don’t blow so many games in the late innings? What if Dansby Swanson doesn’t slump the whole first half?
It would be unwise to depend solely on consistency and positive regression alone to yield several instances of existing players outperforming their projections, but that will probably remain at the core of Hoyer’s strategy. The key may be how he goes about augmenting the roster to provide greater depth and certainty in what has always been a volatile unit. I’m speaking, of course, about the bullpen.
As mundane as it sounds to say the Cubs should target some higher-priced relievers, doing so would represent a change of tack for Hoyer and could therefore be called creative in a sense. Planning to give Matt Shaw some early run at second base while Nico Hoerner recovers from forearm surgery is hardly a novel concept, but it’s a way to promote a prospect without having to move a solid veteran. There’s also the matter of how they handle right field and DH between Bellinger, Seiya Suzuki, and one or two of their top outfield prospects.
So when we think about what it means for the Cubs to be creative, it’s probably best to view it through the prism of Hoyer’s track record. At the risk of calling him bland, I’m saying his concept for this winter may be akin to adding a little salt and pepper to the chicken breasts before throwing them in the oven. And hey, maybe he even lets Carter Hawkins convince him to get really wild with some onion powder and paprika. I’m not holding my breath on anything spicy, though a quick shake of red pepper flakes would really set things off.
And with that overworked analogy, I will go ahead and see myself to the door to hook up a late breakfast.