Jed Hoyer SPEAKS and Cubs Gold Glove Finalists Announced | CHGO Cubs Podcast

Jed Hoyer SPEAKS and Cubs Gold Glove Finalists Announced | CHGO Cubs Podcast

Coming up next on the CHGO Cubs podcast presented by Toyota, it’s the annual Jed Hoyer State of the Cubs address. Where do they stand right now and what’s the plan for the off season? We’re gold Jerry Gold. CHGO Cubs next. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Hey Chicago, what do you say? It’s the CHO Cubs podcast presented by Toyota. Let’s go places and we are ready to talk offseason baseball. Man, Jed Hoyer does this every year. It’s better when he does it a little bit later in the fall. He he actually mentioned that in the press conference today. He’s like, “Yeah, each year you like to go a little bit later than the year before.” Yep. We did. So, uh, we’re going to talk all about everything he said. Are there some things that are going to get Cubs fans angry? Yeah. Are there some things that maybe got me angry? Yeah. Was it mostly reasonable? Yes, it was. Was it measured? Yes, it was. Yes, it was. It was fairly reasonable. Um, we’re also going to talk about all the gold gloves. We’ll talk about the Brewers. We’ll talk about uh anything you want to talk about Cubs baseball here on the CHO Cubs YouTube channel. Might make sure you tell a friend, tell a neighbor, tell a total stranger. He is Joey Chrisopoulos. I am Luke Stuckmire. Sean Anderson is running the ones and twos and the dials here in studio C for Cubbies today. Um first thing was the news before Jed Hoyer came out and the Rawlings Gold Glove Award finals are out. Now, our guy Brendan Miller doesn’t like this because he says if it’s not Wilson, it is not worth it. Oh, right. The gloves. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He He doesn’t like the award because he thinks that Rawlings only gives the awards to players that use the Rawlings glove. Um Well, NBA basketballs have to deal with the same thing, right? They’re no longer Spalding. They’re now Wilson basketball. That’s right. So, it’s a little sketchy. But here’s the news, Joey. The Cubs have six gold glove finalists. Six gold glove finalists. That is more than any team in the National League. Next in the National League is the Marlins. They have three. In the American League, the Blue Jays also had six. But no team in Major League Baseball has more gold glove finalists than your Chicago Cubs. What do you make of that? Not surprised. Not surprised in the least. And uh Jed today during Jedfest also mentioned what you know the identity of the team is which we’ll talk about the Chicago Cubs. He had mentioned the first thing was defense. Um when we talk about the Chicago Cubs defense at this point they’re like prestige television right? Like it’s like the show succession. Like everybody gets nominated to the point where you’re actually upset if someone gets snubbed, right? I’m sure there’s plenty of people in the chat that are thinking why isn’t Dansby Swanson at least a finalist on this list? But I’m going to throw it back to you Luke. Who’s the biggest surprise for you on this list? Because I think it’s safe to say Ian Hap and Pet Cro Armstrong Ian Hap’s past gold glove winner. Yeah, Pro Armstrong is feels like the slam dunk of the century. But out of the other four or and Nicoer obviously passed gold glove winner too as well. So there’s actually three. Which of the three actually surprised you the most? I’m curious to hear what you think on that. Which of those three surpris which of the other three? Yeah. Between Carson Kelly, Matt Shaw, and Matthew Boyd, which one surprised you that got finalist? Um, Matt Shaw. Me too. Like because I didn’t expect him to be as good defensively as he was. And and when he first started playing, I thought, does he have enough arm? And that was always kind of the thing. And then it was like, well, he really puts it all in there. But he was great defensively. Like I I have no issues with Matt Shaw as a third baseman at all defensively. And that’s what the uh Team USA coach had said about him, too. Like you don’t have to worry about him at third base. at spring training, right? Everyone was saying as he moves over, what is that acclamation process going to look like? And that coach put to rest right away that he was like, he’s going to be fine. Yeah. And you know what Jed even said in his press conference today, frankly, caught them off guard. Like they didn’t know it was going to be this good from from Matt Shaw. So, props to him for putting in the hard work, making it such a smooth transition defensively over at third base. Um I think he was the best defensive third baseman they’ve had over there since Chris Bryant. Yeah. And honestly, when we talk about defense at the third base position for the Cubs over the years, or at least in my lifetime, it’s pretty few and far in between, right? I mean, Aramos was known more for the bat than he was known for the gloves, right? I thought Chris Bryan had some really solid seasons there. Um, and as you could see, they kind of Joe Madden started tinkering with the idea and as he got deeper in his career, started playing a little more outfield. But yeah, when it comes to match off, for a rookie to possibly win a gold glove in his first season at a new position has to get Cubs fans excited, right? You have to start that it helps you start kind of fantasizing about what the sky is, how high the sky could possibly go for Matthew Shaw. Now, he needs to make some steps offensively. I don’t think anyone’s going to deny that. But if you tell me you already have a Gold Glover over there at third base and you look at the infield that we already have with past Gold Glover win winner Danby Swanson, hopeful winner Nico her. I mean, the defense for the Chicago Cubs isn’t going anywhere. It’s all the other stuff on the team that hopefully we can augment and improve moving forward. Yeah, I can’t say whether or not this was Hap was better this year than some of the other years. This would be four straight gold gloves. Impressive. And can’t take that away from him. You can have haters out there. You just you can’t. It’s it’s it’s left field is left field and that’s where you put a lot of the worst outfielders, but he’s the best of the worst outfielders in the in the in the left corner. You got to be the best long snapper, too, right? I mean, everybody’s got to be the best at something. And frankly, PCA could have been in this conversation last year had he played more games in center field. Like, that’s very fair. This is his first full season for Pete Crow Armstrong. And Jed mentioned that in this press conference, too. Uh, and we’re going to play some clips from Jed via uh Maris Twitter page, but like I would agree with Jed in that he said he thinks PCA is the best all-around defensive player in the whole game. And I and I think that’s that’s real possible. Um, and so do I think he’s winning the gold glove? I think he’s winning a gold glove. Do I think Hap’s winning a gold glove? I think Hap’s winning a gold glove. You ask me who surprised me out of that group. All right. Yeah, that that’s still my answer. But I I didn’t expect Boyd to be on the list either. But then I wasn’t factoring in I don’t know I don’t know the answer to this. Do you Sean? Do you know like are pickoffs part of the metric for how they measure? They they do measure um obviously they measure bases prevented or bases taken away. Uh which I believe Matthew Boyd tied Major League Baseball with Paul I think at nine. It should count. They should absolutely count. And I think with when we talk about Matthew Boyd, we just learned a lot about the guy this year, right? I mean, the signing again, we we’ve brought it up on the show, but the signing came up out of nowhere. We did a show over the winter where his F4 was or his his projected win total was supposed to be only four this year. His projected on on Fan Graphs or what was it? Zips projections. Is that what we did? Zips. Yeah. And Zips. It was only supposed to be 40 innings and four wins this year. Comes over, becomes an all-star. um totally remakes his career in one season in a Cubs uniform and then obviously you find out that he has ties his family grandfather grew up a Cubs fan and then to see him use that pickoff as a real weapon this year to hold down runners and let’s be honest there’s a couple guys in the rotation Jame Tyion for one that isn’t that great at holding on runners the Chicago Cubs also prided themselves on stealing bases offensively this year so if you have a guy on the mound that could prevent stolen bases you got a team that can steal some bases is obviously a winning formula. Um, and when we talk about real quick with Matt Shaw, I just looked it up. Defensive runs saved, which is a big metric when we talk about who’s going to win the Gold Glove. Number three in all baseball, uh, number one is Krian Hayes on the Cincinnati Reds with 19, Ma Garcia 13, Matt Shaw 12, and then after that in terms of Pittsburgh in terms of anyone else in the National League, uh, Jared Triola, Nolan Aronado way, way way down there with only seven or six. So, it looks like it’s going to come down to Matt Shaw or Hayes. Um, I just I think you’re going to value a lot of other stuff in terms of range, but yeah, Sean. Oh, you’re good. I I didn’t mean to cut you off. Per Rawlings Gold Glove, uh, Rawlings Gold Glove represents overall fielding excellence and is not an award based solely on fielding metrics and statistics, nor does it factor in offensive production. We can make sure that’s obvious. But then they do list the Saber Defensive Index. The Saber Defensive Index, TM, SDI, which is a mouthful, is a measure of the number of runs saved by a player’s defensive performance over the course of a seeding season compared to average defensive player at the position. The SDI compares measures from six different defensive data sources and includes factors that rate the defender’s arm strength and accuracy, range, and sure-handedness along with the number of excellent and poor fielding plays he makes. Oh, so just like the Emmys, the exact same. And uh Matt Shaw wears a Rawlings glove. Oh, okay. Matt Boyd wears a Wilson. So he’s not winning. So I don’t think he’s winning, but he, you know, he’s not winning. How many of the six win it? Four. PCA wins. PCA wins. Ian Hap, I think, is going to win again. Yes, those two win for sure. And And what about Nico? I think Nico is going to win. That’s three. Nico had a fantastic season. You know what’s funny is that like I didn’t even think of Carson Kelly when when you were talking about gold gloves because every highlight that plays in my head of Carson Kelly this year is a random home run. Oh, 100%. Right. They’re all they’re all the home runs him running around the bases. That’s what was so surprising. But he obviously did a nice job behind the plate as well. And he I think he I think the Cubs are very comfortable with the job that he does with the pitching staff, too. Absolutely. I mean, I think he took on way much more of a burden than anyone anticipated this year. And and look, now that the season’s over, I I’ve been reluctant to say it on a microphone cuz sometimes I get weird on the superstitious reverse jinx thing. You just get weird sometimes. I do just get weird sometimes, but that’s all the cake. That’s all the rally cake talking. But the Chicago Cubs team this year did a really great job keeping men off base via the walk. They did not walk a lot of guys. This was a team that I I’m not going to say that they were always pounding strikes because I don’t have the numbers out in front of me, but talk about past teams and we talk about not letting the leadoff guy get on on a consistent basis. Something that obviously you don’t like and I don’t like either. I thought they did a really really nice job keeping men off the bases via the walk. So, I think the catcher plays a bit of a part in that. And sometimes maybe he’s the catcher also like the offensive lineman. If you’re not hearing about him, then he’s doing a great job. When you start hearing about a catcher behind the plate, maybe that’s more likely that something’s wrong. Either it’s a framing issue or unable to throw guys out or making bad plays. Like when you don’t hear about a guy, maybe that’s when you know he’s doing the right thing. You know who’s not on the list? Dan B Swanson, which is weird cuz I thought he had one of the better years. Well, I mean, he was he won a playoff series for the Cubs literally with his glove. With his glove. Okay. And yet he is not on there. But I’ve seen some people saying the defensive metrics didn’t love him this year. He’s gone from like 20 to 17 to like four defensive runs saved or something like I listen he’s number seven on the list was seven. Mookie Betts is at 17 right now. Um and there are other metrics. You know when we talk about in the uh the 120 club and the bleachers a lot of people also feel like Mason Win is going to have a good would have a good shot at it as well. Well, those are the finalists, right? And don’t get me wrong, Wind’s a great defensive player. And Mookie Bits what he did moving all around the field and then going to play shortstop. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. But if if you’re trying to tell me that Dansby is not one of the best defensive shorts stops in the game, I’m not buying it. Just just the eye test. I’m not buying it. I I we watch all the games. He unbelievable. He had a great year and I thought he was improved from last year where there were a couple lapses like remember early on in 2024 in my eyes better this year where the defensive metrics apparently say no he wasn’t. Cubs defense was a little shaky in the first part of 2024 and I thought they rebounded nicely in the second half, but I thought Danby top to bottom was absolutely incredible this year, which is fine, right? Make him hungry. Make him make him hungry to get it back. But no, I’m happy when he’s when he’s got a glove and he’s out there playing shortstop. I’m happy he’s a Chicago Cub for sure. Just want to add to Joey’s Carson Kelly thought of maybe the walk rate is lower. Not only was the walk rate lower from last year, the K rate for the team pitching staff since 2021 has stayed around 21 to 22%. 21.9 22.4 22.6 22.3 21.4. That’s not why you called. The walk rate has decreased in every single year. 2021 9.6 2022 8.8 2023 8.4 2024 8 2025 6.9 6.9 this year. The goal is under five. I want it under five. I don’t know if that’s going to happen. Can we get it under five? Maybe. But maybe more strikeouts. Four. 22% K rate and an under 7% walk rate. That’s pretty good. That’s a huge jump. Six eight 6.9%. That’s a big jump. And that makes a huge difference. And for a team that maybe I know that the strikeouts the strikeouts were pretty decent for the Chicago Cubs this year in terms of where they ranked, but obviously I think we would want a little swing and miss especially what we just saw in the playoffs. But they they weren’t walking guys and I think that was a really important factor and I think Carson Kelly deserves credit for that too. If we could get like a 90% K rate and a 2% walk rate then I’d really be into that. I don’t know if that even maths. Anyways, coach Luke Stucker. We’re going to hear from Jed Hoyer after the break. We’ll also talk about the Brewers who keep on flying that L flag. But first, a word from our sponsors. 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Whatever it might be, RC is the move for whatever you’re doing. Me and my RC. Uh, all right. So, we’re back here on the CHDO Cubs podcast. Hi to everybody in the live YouTube chat. Shane Newbanks is here. Shane, always a regular says, “Fire Jed into the sun.” So, he’s ready to hear whatever Jed has to say in this press conference, huh? Listen, man. Oh, man. He’s got his three-day passes to Jedfest and he’s ready to party, right? I believe it’s Hoyer Palooa is what most people call it now. I heard Carter Hawkins is headlining Friday. Jed obviously is going to be doing Saturday and there’s rumors that Sunday could be Theo. Theo might show up. Guest appearance. Guest appearance. Unbelievable. In glasses and a mustache. And Craig just breathes heavily into a microphone in the DJ tent. Um, yeah, look, like, uh, you know, Jed Hoyer talked today. Um, I don’t know about you Cubs fans, right? I think some of it made me upset. Um, some of it, uh, was a bit expected. Some of it, again, I said yesterday, trying to read between the lines. There were a couple things that got me a little excited, but I walked in with my eyes open, right? It was like going to a dinner when you know it’s going to be like tapas, right? And I knew I was going to come home hungry. Yep. Right. You go, you’re going to a meal, but you knew you weren’t going to be filled up. It’s the worst. the one piece of steak comes by and seven people go for the little pieces of steak and you’re like, I just wanted to order a steak. Why? And then somebody hands you like a a pepper covered carrot and you’re like, great, there’s six of these. I don’t want any of them. It’s delicious, but you only get two bites. Yeah. Torture. Enjoy. What kind of life is that? Not good. And that’s what I felt a little bit like with uh with Jed’s uh press conference today and and and you mentioned earlier like there’s a part of it I that I think a lot of Cubs fans were dying to hear from him. Yeah. There was another part of it too that I wish maybe we had we had waited a little bit, right? Because when we got into the budget question, he said, “Well, I haven’t even discussed that yet.” Yeah. And it’s like, “Oh, man. There’s a Isn’t that convenient?” There’s a meatball part of me too that wasn’t like after they lost game five to the Milwaukee Brewers, Tom Rickettts didn’t like storm into Jed’s office and go do what you need to do and spend, right? They haven’t even talked about it. So, um, what were your what were your big takeaways? It’s it’s just a built-in, uh, excuse. Uh, the number one takeaways, there was nothing as bad as last year when he came out and said the wind was one of the big reasons our offense didn’t score. that there was there was nothing to that level that you should be. So you don’t have to worry about that. That didn’t happen. There was also not Carter Hawkins saying, “Well, we got to focus. We also have to pay attention to 2032.” That didn’t happen. Yes, that was so nothing drastically horrible. Um but he kind of made up with the wind this year, don’t you think? He kind of defended the wind. I’ll get to that. By the way, uh so here we go. But we’re going to get into the Jed Hoyer press conference and this is your taking the temp segment. Your trusted local experts, Four Seasons Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing, and Electric. Visit Four Seasons Heatingcooling.com for all their specific offers and money-saving coupons. That’s Four Seasons heatingcooling.com. So, what is the temperature of your Chicago Cubs after winning four playoff games, still more than the Brewers this season, and falling in the NLDS to Milwaukee in game five? Well, Jed Hoyer was asked today, was the 2025 Cubs season successful? Here’s his answer via Marquee’s Twitter page. Yeah, I mean I think my um emotion today um has been disappointment. I think that um you spend time thinking about plays and pitches and and at bats and I think that whenever you get into the playoffs, you start moving forward and you have elimination games. I think that’s the I think that’s the kind of the natural motion is to think about the the last thing that happened and obviously that was that disappointing and so we didn’t reach all of our goals. Um, I think when I think back on 2025 as I get away from it, um, I think my biggest emotion will be like pride. Honestly, I think I’m I’m really proud of of this team. I think that, you know, kind of from day one, uh, they were really um, consistent. I think the effort of the players was amazingly consistent. The way they treated each other was was really consistent. I thought our coaching staff uh was remarkable all year, not just in preparing our guys, but also just finding edges all the time, like constantly being hungry to find edges to to beat our opponents. Um I thought this group connected incredibly well um with the fan base from day one, not just in the postseason, which was amazing to be here, but also all season. I think the crowds were great and that’s because this group and the fan base really connected. Um and I’m proud of the organization. And I think we have a real foundation to keep building from. So, um, you know, obviously I’m disappointed now. I think you’d be it’d be impossible to, you know, play that elimination game and and, you know, you know how close the margins are. It’d be impossible to to not have disappointment uh from kind of falling short of the ultimate goal. But I am really proud of this group and proud of our season. So, I’m totally with them on that one. Yeah, I’m totally with them. I’m disappointed that they didn’t beat the Brewers. disappointed that they didn’t win the division, which if they won the division, I think they would have beaten the Brewers. Um, I’m disappointed in the way it finished offensively, but overall, I’m proud that the Cubs are back on the map and a player in Major League Baseball. They’re not just mailing it in. They never should have, but here we are. We’re back to being a team that other teams around the league should look at and say, “Look what the Cubs are doing over there. Did you see what that crowd was like uh at Wrigley Field? And so I I’m with him on this one. I I I I give him a thumbs up on that answer. Yeah, you have to look, you have to be objective and give some real talk with this, right? Like and this is where I feel like sometimes we can start to kind of like pick and parcel like how we emote, how people we want other people to emote, right? And I think a lot of this right here is I think a Cubs fan also would be like, “Well, why aren’t you upset and why aren’t you enraged to take the next step and we’re starting tomorrow and you know, we’re not satisfied and all that stuff.” I don’t think Jed Hoyer has to come out and say that. I think just in this moment right now, I think he’s giving a lot of credit to a lot of people in the organization that worked really hard. I think when he also said that this collection of guys in the locker room really did care about each other and were able to connect with the Wrigley faithful. I think there’s nothing wrong with him in this moment and I agree with him to reflect on a lot of the successes and things that went well this season because at the very least it’s not resting on your laurels to do that. It’s about taking those things and trying to carry them back over into another season while also adding new elements to as well. So, look, I I when he says the word pride as a Chicago Cubs fan, I feel it, too. I really enjoyed rooting for this team this year, and I really wanted them to possibly go a little bit deeper. I don’t know if it would have been meant them being the Dodgers, but other than that, like I do uh I I agree with Jed in this in this sense of him just being reflective on the team. Godfather Michael Colada, the godfather of our CHO Cubs podcast, says, “Crowds were great. How you going to repay them? Lower the payroll. That’s how. Yes, that might be what happens. Well, he he did a couple of there is a couple of subtle things that I picked up on that led me to believe that what’s going into what what is I don’t know what when Godfather when does Ricketts lose? When does Ricketts lose? Explain that one. He’s always going to make money on this team. I’m not blaming Jed for the payroll not being as high as I’d like it to be. I am blaming Jed for not getting an extra start, finding a way to somehow get another starting pitcher at the beginning of the season, not at the trade deadline. And we’ll get to that stuff. Yep. There there’s a lot of different things that I I can say, well, yes, but they will have to recreate. You know, he last year at this time he talked about exceeding projections. That was the other one that got me just, you know, it poked me and I’m like, you’re the Cubs. What is this exceeding projection? So, every player has to have a career year for you to have a successful season. The the one thing that scares me a little bit about the 2025 Cubs is many, many, many, many players exceeded projections 100%. And I don’t know if you can count on all of them to exceed projections again in 2026. So, he’s going to have to go out and rebuild a bullpen. He’s going to have to go out and find your next Brad Keller. He’s going to have to go out and find someone who can can Carson Kelly do that again. I don’t know. Make tough decisions on some guys that gave you some great innings in the rotation this year. And are you putting your full faith that they’re going to repeat that or are you going to look for reinforcements somewhere else? Is PCA going to be a 3030 guy? Like a a lot of those different things. But I mean he found to find Pomeran’s to find Brad Keller and yes Godfather those were cheap moves but those were great moves. Carson Kelly was a great move. Like I’m not saying there weren’t bad moves in the off season. I don’t know that Justin Turner turned out to be all that great but there were some great moves and I am a little curious how they plan to recreate that exceeding projection success in 2026. I hope it’s with cash, right? Look, and we’re not, and that’s the thing is we’re all frustrated, so it’s not about us trying to like disagree here, but like the the easiest way to exceed a projection, and I’ve said this before, is you have to go out and you have to get cost certainty, and that usually comes in the form of bankable commodities. And that means high-end all-star talent elite, whether it is front of your rotation or whether it is a left-handed slugger or even a right-handed slugger. We there’s plenty of guys that we can talk about, but when you talk about trying to uh safroof your baseball team, um the easiest way to do is to spend those dollars on cost certainty items. Now granted, a lot of times those items that you’re purchasing, they’re going to be expensive. They’re going to cost a lot. But if that means that you create more of a certainty in what you’re going to get on a day-to-day basis with your baseball team, means more long-term success for your baseball team, which means that you have an opportunity to possibly get a little bit deeper in the playoffs and go all the way. So, that’s the trade. That’s the risk. But I think it’s a risk worth taking when you bring in really, really good players onto your baseball team. Uh Evans says just like a casino, Rickettts wins. And he’s not alone. All owners, this isn’t this is an MLB owner thing. Like Steve Cohen on the Mets. Oh my god, he lost all this money this year. Guess what? He’s still filthy rich. Yes. Filthy rich. Yes. But also, the Cubs consistently make profit and they’re never going over the luxury tax. It is very specifically this owner does not spend. Steve Cohen spends. I mean, I could go back to the year they uh signed Kotenga. He signed a year a contract that was 5 years $75 million. That was the fifth highest contract they signed that year. That’s the White Socks largest contract in their history. Yeah, sure. Cubs still don’t have a $200 million guy. Um Neran says it can’t be successful technically because the Brewers were still better and if they win 97, we should win 98. Listen, I’m not going to disagree with that. Uh maybe maybe I’m being too soft. Godfather would say so in saying that well, it was it was a significant step. At least they went to the postseason and at least they got to the second round and game five. But should they ever trail the Brewers? Well, right now the Brewers are a better organization. That I mean, right, that’s just factual. The Brewers are a better organization. Godfather CH is making a good point here. And the only thing I would just say that, Nan, is that if we won more games in the Brewers this year and then the Dodgers smoked us in the NLCS, is it really like is it really that much better? I don’t know. What’s up, Sean? I I Wait, what’ you say? Oh, I was just responding to Nan’s comment here. I was like, he said, “As long as,” he said, “It’s not a successful season because we needed to win 98 games and the Brewers only won 97. You should win this division at least. You should win the division.” And also, what? You don’t want to beat the Brewers in the NLDS? You at least went to the NLCS. I know, but I want to win the World Series. I don’t care about the Brewers, but like, how do you win the World Series? You sign a superstar that could give you consistency day in and day out. I understand that. Uh, you know, Mark Pel says belly numbers better numbers than Tuck. If we’re betting on players for the rest of their careers, I’ll take Tucker. And I like the aggressiveness from Jed Hoyer to go out and get Kyle Tucker, but you’re just going to let him walk. We haven’t played the Tucker thing yet, so I don’t know exactly what he said about Tucker, but I I feel like it’s very clear that they’re going to let him walk for nothing. Pretty much just giving Cam Smith, Pedes, and Wiz Neski up for nothing because their cheap owner will not spend the money that he has. As a tease to the what he said about Tucker, it did feel like Jed Hoyer talked about Kyle Tucker like they went on a date and it went really well, but he doesn’t know if there’s a second date coming. doesn’t know if there’s a commitment. Doesn’t know if he’s getting that phone call the next day. May or may not call. Yeah. Uh we’ll talk about that in a second, but first a word from our sponsors. First, a word from our sponsors. Here, we ready to go? Okay. Hey, Cubs fans. Toyota has 25 vehicles with available all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive. The RAV 4 has legendary versatility. The Grand Highlander’s adult-siz third row is for real. And the Tacoma’s Wildside, oh, that comes standard. the from job sites to campsites and game nights. There’s an all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive Toyota to get you there in style. Find yours at toyota.com or visit your Chicagoland Toyota dealer, Toyota, let’s go places. Great time right now to be a CHGO die hard to get all that written content. Adam John’s cranking it out. Adam Hog cranking it out. Jared Willis cranking it out right now. Got doing it for the Bulls. Bulls coming back. Hawks guys are getting fired up. Anyways, go to all cgo.com for the latest information on how you can join all the thousands of sickos already in our dieh hard community. I believe we got like 700 new ones just in the last week. It’s been awesome. We hit 90K and we’re just soaring towards 91K, too, as well on YouTube subs. Join us. Join us, please. Eye on the ball, Joel. Yeah, I want to talk to you about eye on the ball because I want to say something out to the coaches. Listen up now. 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We know this guy likes his hotels better than winning since the day he bought the franchise. I’m not going to go that far. You might say there’s been a a difference in the way he’s approached it since they won the World Series. Um, but Blake Snell, the way he pitched the other day caught my attention because I know we said on this podcast, he’s one of the names we brought up and it was like, man, I don’t know what you’re going to get. That’s an overpay. Listen, he was worth every penny in that one. Did you see Yamamoto, another guy that was available? Uh, complete game shutout. Not a shutout, complete game. Excuse me. Yeah, still impressive. First one since Verlander. It’s not bad. And Evan has, I think, the super chat, Toyota super chat of the day, saying, “The Cubs have been waiting for another young core, PCA, Bush, Hero, Shaw, Horton, to supplement Jed’s words with free agent talent. Now is the time to put his money where his mouth is, literally.” I feel like that just at least sums it up. I mean, you you have a guy in Tucker who played for you. Why are you just letting him walk? Well, it depends on if that’s the guy you want to put your money into. Now, I’m fine if you decide, well, after a year, he wasn’t exactly the guy I thought he was going to be. He he was nice. He was great at the beginning, but then, you know, our relationship soured a little bit. Things weren’t all that wonderful and he was hurt again and some hurtful things were said. I, you know, whatever. However the relationship went, I caught him looking at his ex’s picture, whatever, you know, ridiculousness. Um, if you want to replace that in a different way, that’s one thing. And Jed Hoyer was a asked about that. He said, “First, we’re going to have all those convers conversations with Kyle Tucker.” Now, if you heard Tucker stuff in the locker room afterwards, he was basically like, “Yeah, we’ll see what happens.” Didn’t sound like a guy who was really amped up about coming back. Said he liked the players and wished them well, whatever happens. Or sub or like sometimes you can like subtly say things that are like, “I’d like to stay here. The Cubs need to come. My goal is my goal is to stay here.” Right? None. It was nothing. It was a big bunch of we’ll see, right? So this is what Jed Hoyer this is like his second question about Kyle Tucker and the money because the the reasoning is what I said yesterday. It’s like okay if you’re not bring if Tucker is not coming back you have to replace Kyle Tucker first half Kyle Tucker some other way. All right. It’s like it’s like when you let Bellinger go. you better spend that money correctly if you’re just going to let the guy walk away. So, if you’re going to let Tucker walk away, I don’t want you replacing the guy that we saw in the second half of the season who was just another outfielder. I want you replacing the guy who was a starter in the All-Star game and was the complete difference for this team offensively because if that guy is here, the Cubs are a completely different team than even what we saw in the postseason. So, this is what Jed Hoyer had to say. Again, this is via Mary’s Twitter page and we appreciate that. The Tucker I think that um it’s probably more specific question. I mean that then I would answer. I mean I think that um clearly Kyle had a huge impact on our on our offense this year. And so if he’s not here then like that that’s a a void and we have to figure out how to replace that. Um but there’s a lot of different ways to to do that. Um and so um I think that’ll be the focus. But yes, I think that there’s no question that you if you if you don’t retain a player of his caliber, then you have to you have to replace those wins and you know that war in some other ways. And I think that’s something we’ll be really focused on. But I don’t how you do that I think can take many different shapes and forms. Honestly, that shape is money. Yeah. I mean look and like and here’s what’s going to be fun about this off season, right? where like we all I think every Cubs fan is unified in this sense of we are looking at this pile of money and I’m I’m going to speak in vagaries here cuz I don’t have the numbers in front of me but I think the luxury tax is around like $240 million right if 17 million comes off that books at the very least I think the Chicago Cubs are probably looking at anywhere between4 or $50 million in just oneyear dollars to possibly spend to get up to that luxury tax. I don’t think anyone in this chat or anyone here is disagreeing that we want them to spend that money. We’re just going to have a fun, healthy, rigorous debate about who they spend it on, right? And if they don’t, I think that’s when we’re all going to reunify and criticize the fact that they haven’t spent that money. But just with that comment, Jed, about how to replace those wins in that war when it comes to Kyle Tucker, I think it’s going to cost money. Of course. I don’t think it’s coming from Owen Casey and Kevin Okantra. No, it’s going to cost money. Yes, you’ve got to you got to pay up for it. And that was another thing he addressed. He basically came out and said he wouldn’t put a number on the budget because we haven’t had those conversations yet. Wish they had the budget’s going to be as much as it was this year or it’s going to be the same as it was yada yada yada. Yeah. But he did say he thinks he will have enough money to do what he needs to do. So he didn’t throw he didn’t throw ownership under the bus. Do we have this clip? He he he kind of pokes around it a little bit. As far as the budget stuff, you know, I haven’t had those conversations um yet. I think we’ll we’ll sit down over the next two or three weeks and and go through that, but um yeah, I’m confident that we’re going to have enough enough money to to feel the good team. I like that that’s that’s the simplest thing I’ll say, but as far as details, I don’t know yet. So, good enough to to to feel the good team. Again, that’s courtesy Mary’s Twitter page. Um, here’s I I just I wish I could have responded this or had a fan sitting there, you know, like maybe Bleacher Jeff could have yelled this from the front row or my Thai guy. Oh, my tie guy for sure. Or Danny, our guy Danny Rocket could have yelled like, “I don’t want a good team. I want a great team. I want you to feel a great team. I want you great Cubs team. I want you to feel the best team. I don’t want a good team.” That’s nice. We’ve had that. Now, what I want is a great team. I don’t want a good Buick. What I want is a Porsche. Well, and I think the issue is they keep saying the money will be spent. And if they spend $15 million on Matthew Boyd, that’s spending money, isn’t it? It’s what needs to be asked directly is, are you going to replace the wins that Tucker leaves with veteran players? Are you actually going to replace that with players that have been there and done that before, giving you two war and two war at separate positions combining for the five war? asked him a little bit about using that youth influx in that corner position and he would not commit to that which was actually really kind of great to hear that I think that they’re looking at multiple avenues and multiple different doors that I don’t think internally they’re just thinking this is going to be an Owen Casey Kevin Alcantra rotation with Seiya and they’re going to somehow carry the day with that. So I was I was pleased to at least him see him say that at this point it seemed like he was he’s they’re entertaining other options. What was what was Tucker’s final war at the end of the season? And it should have been a lot higher. Obviously, it could have been I want to say not been injured and repeated the first half. It would have been I think I’m going to take a guess. I don’t off the top of my head. I think it was like 5.4 something like right. And it it would have been it would have been more like almost double digits probably had him and PCA were on pace for seven plus worst seasons, right? Yeah. So close to like Chris Bryant MVP type numbers. Let me ask you this. Both you guys. Yeah. All right. Say, say you’ve got a six war player if he’s healthy. What’s more, what’s what’s more valuable to you if you’re spending money? A six war player or a bunch of one and two war players that add up to the six play? Yeah. Like three. Okay. Three twos. Would you rather have three twos or would you rather have the six? I would rather have the six because I would hope and pray that within the development of my own organization um I’m bringing up and I’m creating those twos. I’m not going out and buying those twos. I’m developing them from uh the seeds of from the soil of the Cubs organization sprouts. Yeah, 100%. And that’s that’s the job. And then you go out and then you bring in the sledgehammer. There’s like not even you know 15 10 six war players. You have to go get a guy that would be a cornerstone that consist consistently give you over four to five war. Tucker maybe not a five war player is consistently under four war and that or under five war and that’s typically because of the injuries but if he plays a full 162 you’re likely getting five war from Kyle Tucker. And also just to address Nan whoever the producer is saying Ricketts is cheap. 200 million is cheap but 260 isn’t. Do you think Rickettsville was free? First of all he made the decision to buy the team and buy all those buildings. Boohoo. He gets to buy all the buildings and get all that sponsorship money from CocaCola. Poor him. Um, but isn’t Chicago printing money like it was pre-COVID? No. But I don’t know if that’s necessarily his fault. Also, his ballpark is pretty full. And then finally, 7% of the wealth in the United States is owned by or 61% of the wealth of the United States is owned by 7% of the population. So, boohoo. Oh no. Tom Rick’s poor his poor ass can’t spend $60 more million. Dang it. Hold on. Let me check my bank account. I’m not either. Uh, Chef Kevin says he was a 4.5 F-word. And my point is, yes, but you’re trying to replace first half Kyle Tucker, not all season Kyle Tucker, because that wasn’t enough. Look where it got you. All season and postseason Kyle Tucker got you to game five and not enough offense. You’re trying to replace the guy that had you at the All-Star break with the best offense in all of baseball. And that guy would have been more than a 4.5 F war had he continued his trend throughout the whole season. But then you got a fractured finger and then you got a slump that because of that and then you then you’ve got uh mental problem with it then got the calf strain all of it benched and all that stuff and yeah look I mean and we’re saying this and in the same breath I think a lot of people Cubs fans were like play Moises Baseros more and we did and he did okay but guess what it wasn’t at the level that Kyle Tucker brought to the lineup and that’s what makes it so hard is that it really is it’s hard to get a clear picture, especially as a Cubs fan, and I understand why people want to say move on from him, and I just kind of want to see where the numbers are at personally, because he is a player that I do think is going to have a good career. You brought up something very good that I’m I’m curious about how his lower half kind of progresses if you wanted to do a seven-year type deal, something along those lines. The three to fiveyear deal, a little bit different when we talk about the money and just I know 27 200 million, 260 million, guys, it’s a competitive market, okay? It’s it’s it’s a competitive market where all these people are are paying the big dollars. All right. And the Chicago Cubs are one of the big market teams. So I we we’re not gonna go through semantics of like the dollar amount here, but the Chicago Cubs need to be at the very top. That’s kind of where it’s at. The thing that I wanted to bring up just very quickly when we talk about the budget was I did hear something from Jed Hoyer that I found to be really interesting and it isn’t and I’m always trying to like look for subtleties and if there was any little piece of thing a piece of information that he said in the press conference today that I think could end up in the pitch deck that he submits to Tom Rickettts about increasing the budget this year is that I found it really interesting that he talked about he said the word the phrase starting pitching a couple of times. times early on. And then he also alluded to again looking back at the deadline, he doesn’t have any regrets because the margins were so small and the prices were so high in terms of getting and receiving and why starting pitching was having a hard time being moved. And it seemed to like he kind of subtly made this illusion to we need to start doing our work more in the offseason and we can’t maybe be holding keeping our powder dry or holding our dollars till the trade deadline like we have the last couple of years because the prices will be so high. He was almost it was it was very subtle and it wasn’t a shop, but I think it was a plea to maybe the people that signed off on the budget to say, “Hey, can we go and shop for the groceries that the meal that we’re going to make before the season starts instead of running out to the store when the turkeys uh got 5 minutes left in the oven and we’re all of a sudden we need some gravy for the mashed potatoes and do we get the right kind of gravy or the you know what I mean? It’s that kind of thing.” And I could see him, it felt like of all the things, I think starting pitching was on Jed Hoyer’s mind a couple of times when he talked today. Listen, the Cubs have one clear advantage over everybody in their division. It is money. Money. They are the biggest city, the biggest market. They’re the number one team in town. And that’s where they have their clear advantage. So take advantage of it. It doesn’t mean spend foolishly. You still have to spend it on the right guys, but you have to spend it. Neran said 275 million because you got to beat the Dodgers. This is really what I’m saying when I look at that and I see the Brewers and what they’ve had happen. Yes, you can always get in and I know that is the Cubs goal is to be like a 92 win team, at least 92, and then you get yourself in and good things can happen. That is true. But when you start paying guys like the Dodgers are and and being creative with the way you are with I mean Blake Snell gave him a 60 million deferred contract like 60 million that’s deferred. Otani deferred like all of it. Well, they had a bad season, the Dodgers. They won 93 games. Like, they have created a floor where their bad season is getting in them into the playoffs. No matter what, now it’s healthy and you’re like, “Oh, man. They can just march out all of these guys.” And the Brewers are going to I said this isn’t a knock on the Brewers. The Cubs didn’t stand a chance against the Dodgers if they were healthy. And the Brewers won’t stand a chance. Even though baseball can be a little funky, I don’t believe those teams will have a chance. The Dodgers will be in the World Series. If I’m wrong, I’ll own it. But the Dodgers are going to be in the World Series. All right, we’re not done with this yet. How might they spend this money? What else did Jed Hoyer have to say? What else do you disagree with? Yeah, I got one I got one that really made me mad. And a note and a note for the Brewers. But first, a word from our sponsors. Uh Ray Chevy, we’ve got deals sweeter than candy this Halloween at Ray Chevrolet and Fox Lake. 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The shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. back at the CHO Cubs podcast uh where the Cubs off season has begun and Jed Hoyer has just had his state of the Cubs address with the media as he heads off and probably won’t see him until the GM meetings. Take some time off then the winter meetings when he’ll have more answers about, you know, things like the budget and players and decisions and all those things. Hey, Michael Field I just had my favorite back and forth with in the comments. Everybody wants to spend more money. Okay. On who? I said Kyle Tucker. He said nah. So I you know I g I gave my opinion and Michael just doesn’t want to hear it. Um the disagreement just to make it push it a little further. My my numbers are off and and on when with the war numbers for Tucker when you look at baseball reference he’s had a season of 4.5 BAR or more in every year since 2021. And then if you look at fan graphs he’s pretty much had like three seasons of 4.9 war. Um even when he played 157 games or like 124 it’s around 4.9. But just to put it in perspective, players since 2021 to have four or more 4.5 baseball reference war seasons, show Otani has four, Freddy Freeman four, Francisco Lindor four, Mukie Betts four, Kyle Tucker five, Sodto five, Jose Ramirez five, Aaron Judge five. So he’s in a very very very very elite group. I I don’t disagree with that. When we saw him at his best, he was everything we expected. If you ask me overall, was that who I expected to have all season? No. I was felt you you use the analogy of the the first date thing like I you didn’t get the second date. This is probably like the girl that goes out with the guy and said he was really nice. He’s got a nice job. He was really funny, but I don’t know if he was I don’t know if he was sexy. There was something about his face. I didn’t like he had kind of a frumpy plaid shirt on. I don’t know. Well, the the it’s not and he drives a you know. Yeah. Like you’re having a good time during the date, but on the drive home you’re just asking yourself, is he the one? Right. And there’s a lot to go into this where we did get evidence of exactly what Shawn is illustrating about the type of player that Kyle Tucker can be. But we learned a couple things and I don’t know it’s going to probably be an un unanswerable right is the question and one is can the guy play through injury because we did not see that to this point. The other side of that though is did we get caught up in a very interesting perfect storm of and Luke, you’ve said this before. The guy fractures his finger and maybe the Chicago Cubs said, “Hey man, let’s let’s shut you down for three weeks, get you in a splint and have you come back and he said no, I’m not doing that.” He might have said no contract year uh slams the ball off his knee or even in July had a really really really rough July after a very good June and maybe there was an opportunity to give him a blow and have him take a step back. never happened. Eventually gets the calf strain. They have him doing drills in the outfield for an injury that ended up taking him off the map for about two and a half weeks. Why didn’t they just sit him down right there in that moment? If this guy, I’m telling you right now, if Kyle Tucker signs whatever the number is and he stays with the Chicago Cubs. I promise you, any one of those injuries, he immediately goes on the injured list because why are we messing it with it? Why are we messing with our best player? Why are we waiting? And why are we letting and he’d have his money so he’d be like why are we letting the dayto-day dictate the terms of your most important piece with an obvious injury. He had a fracture in his finger. But we’ll never know, right? And you always wonder if that had to do with some of the politics of the player that wanted to get this big payday and stay out there for his team and continue to produce. also with the Chicago Cubs that were maybe trying to appease and assuage a player that wanted to stay out there even against maybe their own better judgment because they knew what they wanted to keep a good relationship with him. And that’s what’s going to be always the mystery about this season with the Chicago Cubs and Kyle Tucker. Godfather says sign him to a one-year prove it deal 35 million. Listen 40. But yes, what whatever that number would be for the one year, I just don’t know that it’s going to be big enough that it outdoes the Yankees who might be interested, right? like I I’ve heard all the different things. I’m not ruling out that I would want Kyle Tucker back at the right price because I saw what he meant to this team in the first half of the season. I’m just saying I don’t think he’s coming back. Whether that’s him the player, whether that’s him the player, whether that’s the Cubs the finances, whether that’s the Cubs I don’t know like how the whole injury thing went all season. I just don’t think it adds up to him being in a Cubs uniform. So, I’m not ruling it out like Jed. They’ll have the conversations, right? That’s that’s what he told us. We’re going to have those conversations. Good. Now, plan B better be really good because I think the odds of him coming back are very slim. If that would I like to see them take that same amount of money and give it to Schwarber and cease. I plan B sounds real good to me, too. It’s a good plan B. But are they willing to Is that amount of money only for one player? And is it completely off the table if it’s not that one player? I hope not. You’re the Chicago Cubs. You know what today is? Today’s the anniversary of 2016 when Miggy Montero hit the grand slam that made Chicago shake. Houses were taken off of their foundations. By the way, Chicago when Miggy was rounding the bases, yelling, “We are good. We are good.” Okay, that’s the anniversary today. And then today, Jed Hoyer was asked, you know, what he’s going to remember about 2016 and does does this year make him about this team? What does he? And he said, “Well, the players were great, but what I really remember is, you know, those playoff crowds.” I felt like our crowds in in the playoffs were unbelievably impressive. And I feel like they it didn’t sort of come out of nowhere. It was sort of like it felt like sort of a natural build of the way the season was that you know going back to kind of April and May like wow these unbelievable crowds and and people were really into it. And then I I just felt like you know against the Padres’s and the two home games we had here um it was pretty amazing. I don’t ever remember players commenting on the crowds and the experience right after games the way they did repeatedly. I’d go I’d come down here after games and the players would be talking about the energy or talking about the experience and that was really cool. It was it was really cool to see and you know it it it leaves you wanting more, right? Um, I think that’s I think that to me when I go back to the very beginning of this press conference talking about like just the disappointment of losing I think the the disappointment in some ways is like not being able to continue to have more of that, right? And in some ways it was it was pretty intoxicating just how uh great Wrigley was during the postseason. Um, and so, uh, yeah, I think that, um, if you want to call it sentimental, I think that, you know, I don’t, I don’t think we’d had feelings like that in the building since like 15 and 16 in a lot of ways. And, um, you know, the it makes you want to work that much harder this winter. It makes you want to, you know, get in earlier. It makes you want to, you know, make that much better decisions because you just, you know, you want to, you know, you want to keep experiencing that because it it was it was it was really cool. And it’s where this building is is really special. Um and our fan base is really special. And um you know, it’s it’s really cool to work for the Cubs. It’s really cool to play for the Cubs. And um you know, I feel really fortunate to do it every day. And like hopefully we can continue to make really good decisions and continue to to play more games like that because that was a that was a pretty awesome experience. Intoxicating is the word that I love. And that was via Mary’s Twitter page. We thank them for that. They did a great job all season. Um, and you’re listening to the CHO Cubs podcast presented by Toyota. Um, listen, intoxicating is the word. Yes, Jed. And you know what’s intoxicating? You know what else was intoxicating? Megie rocking the crowds. Those You know what’s intoxicating? The amount of cash that you get that surrounds your franchise and just falls from the sky when you’re in the postseason and you’re playing games like that. That’s we’ve been want. That’s all we want. You spend the money, we give it back to you immediately. Immediately in celebrations like that. That’s what was intoxicating. And what else is intoxicating? When the great Schwarbino put one on top the scoreboard in 2015 against the Cardinals. That’s the most intoxicating thing I’ve ever seen at Wrigleyfield. And other than beating the Dodgers and going to the World Series, bring him back. Write the wrong. Bring the Schwarbino back. Bring him back. spend the money and it will come back to you tenfold. I mean, you you just got to hope uh the people that make the financial decisions with the Chicago Cubs watch that video. And I I I want to buy into the sincerity of what Jed Hoyer is saying right there because you’re 100% right. I’m blanking on the gentleman’s name, but there was a bleacher um Bleacher Jeff. Uh no, there was a bleacher. No, there’s a Bleacher Nation I think a Bleacher Nation article that came out today was talking about Jerry Ryanorf and it got it went in all these different directions or whatever. But the bottom line and I I really loved how he articulated this is that like and I’m I’m also going to use a phrase that um David Kaplan in ESPN 1000 a lot of times uses is when you talk about sports and the Chicago Cubs like it is a civic responsibility to try and put together the best product that you can out there because not only are you making money but not only are we giving it back to you but think of all the parking attendants and thinking all the people in the bars and the waitresses and all the people making the podcasters eating all their free cake just like and think about what this city does just walking down the street here in the West Loop to the office with all the W flags out there, people wearing Cub shirts saying go Cubs. Um, it means something and I promise you that your profits and your coffers will always be f full and overflow even if you just put a little extra into the product on the field to ensure that not only is there a consistently good Cubs team, but Luke, a consistently great Cubs team year in and year out. That’s right. All right. We’ve just started to pick away at the chicken a little bit. Like there’s there’s a whole carcass of chicken there in the Jed Hoyer press conference that we’ll pick we’ll pull away at the chicken breast a little bit tomorrow. We’ll get those wings pulled apart a little bit. We didn’t even get to the stuff that made me mad. We didn’t even get to the stuff that really made us mad. We were mostly nice today. Yes. Uh Godfather says bring back Schwarber. Haha. Uh we will be back tomorrow at the same time 2 o’clock. Yes. Joey’s gonna look into his crystal ball tomorrow. And I’ll tell you what stuck with me from Jed Hoyer. Let’s do it. Sean, you back tomorrow here or no? Yes. Let’s ride tomorrow. And I’ll actually be here before 2 o’clock. Beautiful. Beautiful. I’ll be on time and not running and sweating. Will our fans be here, too? We hope Neran’s going to be back and the Godfather and Michael and all the great people that are in the live YouTube chat. We appreciate all of you. Thanks for checking out the CHGO Cubs podcast driven by Toyota. Let’s go places. Let’s go back at 2 o’clock tomorrow and do it again. Until then, thanks for watching and fly the W. [Applause] [Music]

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It’s the annual State of the Cubs Address. Chicago Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer talks after the Cubs season ends in the NLDS. Hoyer lays out the plan of the offseason and offeres his opinion on the Cubs offense, Kyle Tucker’s free agency, a decision on Shota Imanaga and more. Luke Stuckmeyer and Joey Christopolous chop it up and hang with the diehards on the CHGO Cubs Podcast.

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