Cubs sign pres. of baseball ops. Hoyer to multiyear extension

MILWAUKEE – With the Cubs holding one of the best records in baseball and Thursday’s 5 p.m. CT Trade Deadline looming – offering an opportunity to further bolster the roster – the team has invested to continue its longtime partnership with president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer.

On Monday afternoon, the Cubs announced a multiyear contract extension with Hoyer, who was in the final year under his previous pact with the ballclub. Hoyer’s stated goal was getting the Cubs back into the playoffs this year, and the team is poised for a place on the October stage as things stand.

“Jed and his baseball operations staff have built a healthy player development organization and put an exciting, playoff contending team on the field,” Cubs executive chairman Tom Ricketts said in a release. “We are looking forward to the rest of the season and to working with Jed for years to come.”

With an 8-4 loss in the opener of this week’s important series in Milwaukee, the Cubs hold a 62-44 record and are one game behind the Brewers (63-43) for first place in the National League Central. Chicago has spent the bulk of this season in first place under manager Craig Counsell, who was signed to a five-year contract by Hoyer in November 2023.

Counsell remembers how excited Hoyer was about the club’s direction during their initial meeting about bringing the manager on board.

“He was just very optimistic about the future and where the Cubs were headed,” Counsell said. “He sold that really well. And I believed it and thought it was the right [decision]. I agreed with him completely. He was really passionate about believing that, and I think he was right.”

Hoyer was aggressive in adding to the roster this past offseason, which was highlighted by the acquisition of star outfielder Kyle Tucker from the Astros in a blockbuster December trade. While Tucker has been an anchor for the lineup this year, the Cubs have also seen center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong – acquired by Hoyer as part of the Javier Báez trade with the Mets at the ‘21 Deadline – blossom into one of the game’s bright young stars.

This marks Hoyer’s 14th season as part of the Cubs’ front-office leadership. He joined the organization as the team’s general manager under team president Theo Epstein and then moved up to the role of president of baseball operations after Epstein’s departure following the 2020 season.

“I’m so grateful for the Ricketts family’s trust and support,” Hoyer said in a release. “The Cubs are a special organization with an amazing fan base. I’m excited to keep building on the momentum we have and to work with a terrific baseball operations staff to consistently deliver a championship-caliber team for this great city.”

Epstein and Hoyer oversaw an overhauling of the team’s roster and operations, building a group that ended the Cubs’ 108-year World Series drought with the triumph over Cleveland in 2016 and made the playoffs five times in a six-year span from 2015-20. Following that franchise-altering era, Hoyer disassembled the previous core group of Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Willson Contreras and Báez, with the goal of creating “the next great Cubs team.”

“What he's done over the past three, four years has been really impressive,” Cubs left fielder Ian Happ said. “To come in when he came in, as the guy in charge to deal with how difficult '21 was for everybody -- for players, the fan base and a lot of guys that he's known for so long -- and handle that the way he did, and then be able to build up what we have now, it's been awesome to watch.”

Hoyer used the 2021-22 seasons for a sweeping rebuild that saw the Cubs create one of the game’s better farm systems and again rethink their player development processes. The signing of shortstop Dansby Swanson to a seven-year, $177 million deal prior to the ‘23 season helped spur Chicago’s move back to contending at the Major League level.

“He's earned every bit of it,” Swanson said of Hoyer’s extension. “He's really done a wonderful job with our group so far this year, and I'm just really happy that he gets to kind of continue what we started. I know he's a big reason as to why I wanted to come here as well.”

While the North Siders narrowly missed the playoffs in both ‘22 and ‘23, the team has used a balance of veteran additions and a youth-infused roster to climb more realistically in contention this season. Crow-Armstrong and Tucker both made the All-Star team, along with lefty pitcher Matthew Boyd, and Chicago has featured one of baseball’s best offensive units.

The next goal for Hoyer will be to use Thursday’s Trade Deadline to help the Cubs fortify a group looking to reach the playoffs for the first time since the pandemic-shortened ‘20 season. Chicago’s top priority is to add to the rotation, but Hoyer has a strong track record of being aggressive, making it hard to rule anything out.

“You want to put yourself in a good position to have opportunities like this at the Trade Deadline,” Swanson said. “We’re excited to see what happens.”