Entering Year 3 as Chicago Cubs president, Jed Hoyer believes ‘we’re on the front edge of where we want to be’

The Chicago Cubs faced a crossroads coming off the 2020 season.

A third division title in a five-year span ended with a sweep in the National League Division Series and questions about the core of the roster. Jed Hoyer’s promotion to president of baseball operations in November 2020 to replace the resigning Theo Epstein put the direction of the organization in Hoyer’s hands. Now entering his third season leading the Cubs, Hoyer’s influence in shaping the big-league roster is apparent.

Of the 47 players to appear in a game for the 2020 Cubs, only five remain on the 40-man roster: Ian Happ, Nico Hoerner, Patrick Wisdom, Kyle Hendricks and Adbert Alzolay. Four others — David Bote, Rowan Wick, Brad Wieck and Brailyn Marquez — are in the minor leagues.

An offseason plan built around pitching and defense brought in Dansby Swanson, Cody Bellinger and Jameson Taillon, notably adding athletic defenders at premium positions. It reflects how Hoyer envisions building a winning team.

“We’re on the front edge of where we want to be,” Hoyer said in a conversation with the Tribune. “My ideal would be to have a lot of same elements we have on this team but also to have it with more of an influx of young players. And we haven’t had that start yet, but I think we look at where our system is, it’s coming really quickly.”

Those young players rising through the system came, in part, through Hoyer’s trades that ranged from money-saving moves to trade-deadline deals of World Series champion icons or impending free agents.

Prospects Pete Crow-Armstrong, Owen Caissie, Kevin Alcántara, Ben Brown and Alexander Canario all could debut by the end of next season while Caleb Kilian, bouncing back with a strong spring, should get another big-league opportunity at some point this season. Right-hander Hayden Wesneski, acquired from the New York Yankees for reliever Scott Effross in August, earned a spot in the rotation with a stellar Cactus League performance after a great finish to 2022 as a September call-up.

“When I got the job, there were a lot of really important decisions that had to be made really quickly, and in a lot of ways I think I benefited from that where obviously I had a great feel for the organization and I knew the decisions that had to be made, but I also felt incredibly prepared to make those,” Hoyer said. “And they were really difficult ones and ones I knew would have a huge impact on our future, so yeah, I felt totally prepared to do it and felt like I was the right person to be doing it.”

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This head decision-making position isn’t new for Hoyer after spending two years as the San Diego Padres general manager before reuniting with Epstein in Chicago as his right-hand man in the GM role. His experience in San Diego, while a different market size, payroll situation and media scrutiny, provided some of the groundwork as his job experience with the Cubs has evolved.

Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts works closely with Hoyer and has enjoyed watching him come into his own as the leader of baseball operations. He appreciates Hoyer’s open thinking and how he brainstorms and discusses ideas.

“He’s really good at asking questions, particularly about the stuff he’s thinking about and asking for, not necessarily advice, but input,” Ricketts told the Tribune in January. “Like, ‘Am I thinking about this the right way? Any questions you would have if you were me on this?’ His style is a little bit different than Theo’s, but I think he gets to the right answers, maybe a little more conversationally too.”

Hoyer’s job inherently means some at times will see him as the bad guy with certain decisions involving fan-favorite players. He understands that comes with his position.

“I guess the way I always try to think about it is was, it’s not just me,” Hoyer said. “It’s a whole group of really smart people that were making decisions together. Obviously I’m the final decision maker, but I try to look at it as a team. And I try to have an intellectual and emotional purity about it, which I’ve never done and I’ll never do something I don’t believe is in the best interests of the Cubs … and if that makes me unpopular at times, I totally get it.

“Sometimes, for obvious reasons, people don’t have all of the information, so I get it. People are passionate about sports. People will be upset with me if I trade their favorite players at times. But ultimately my entire focus is on the logo.”

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The Cubs’ overhaul of their pitching development over the last five years has been a concerted effort, strides that have been paying off at the big-league level. Optimizing pitchers’ strengths and talent is a full organizational effort with assistant general manager and vice president of pitching Craig Breslow and the big-league coaching staff, including pitching coach Tommy Hottovy, assistant pitching coach Daniel Moskos and bullpen coach Chris Young, and the minor-league pitching infrastructure, led by senior coordinator of pitching development Casey Jacobson and coordinator of pitching performance James Ogden.

Major-league camp provided a showcase of the arms coming through the organization.

“I really hope this is just the beginning, like, if this is the endpoint, that’s not good enough,” Hoyer said. “But I look down at the minor leagues and look at the arms we have and my hope is that this is the start of having a lot of pitching depth.”

Eventually player development must translate into wins and postseason success, and the Cubs are approaching the point at which losing seasons could start costing people their jobs. With the money the Cubs invested in the major-league payroll in the offseason — see Swanson’s seven-year, $177 million contract, the second-largest in franchise history — they need to perform like a postseason contender rather than a team heading toward its third consecutive losing season.

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Hoyer believes the Cubs are on the verge of a new era of success. It will be on manager David Ross and the team to prove him right.

“We want to build a team that can be competitive,” Hoyer said. “The best version of us pitches really well, plays really good defense and is really aggressive, and I think those teams can absolutely win so I do think that’s the expectation. … As an organization I feel like you can really feel the momentum here.”