Is Jed Hoyer A CHAMPIONSHIP Level Baseball President?

Is Jed Hoyer A CHAMPIONSHIP Level Baseball President?

Could the Chicago Cubs win a World Series with Jed Hoyer in charge? We talk about it next. You are Locked on Cubs, your daily Chicago Cubs podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. You are Locked On Cubs, part of the Locked On podcast network. Now, the number one sports podcast network. We are your team every day. I’m Sambert. I’m a lifelong fan, taking my passion into a discussion with you on all things Cubs. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the app today. Welcome in. Happy Friday, everybody. Hope it’s been a really good week for you. We’ve got so much to discuss. We’re going to dive into best and worst of the week. We haven’t brought that out yet this off season. Uh my tribute to Kyle Hendricks as as one of the finest Chicago Cubs pitchers and players uh that’s ever stepped on the diamond. Uh but I wanted to start with uh uh the week of the GM meetings or baseball president meetings, if you will, in Jed Hoyer’s case uh in Vegas. I want to talk a little bit about Jed. And I want to talk exclusively about Jed because on this show a lot, rightfully so, we talk Jed, but then we talk Tom Rickettts because of budget things like that. And I just want to talk about Jed Hoyer and this Cubs vision and and you know, is this a championship type vision? Um, and I want to preface my statements. I’m not going to go in every move, evaluate was this a good move, was this a good move? That could be exhausting. He’s he’s been in charge for a while now. He’s had some great acquisitions and he’s had some ones um he’d like to have back like any other um high highle leading executive in sports. I want to preface my statements by by saying I think Jed Hoyer is a good front office baseball executive baseball guy. I do. I think he is good. Um do I think he has his flaws? Absolutely. Um but but I don’t think he’s bad. I never really thought the Cubs should or would have fired him. Um, I I wish they waited on his extension a little bit, which I’ll get to, but I I I don’t think Jed Hoyer is bad at all. I I I I actually think he’s a quite good uh baseball president. The first question you have to ask yourself when evaluating, hey, I is he a championship level and I was going to say executive, but you know, he he is a a championship level executive because he won a World Series as a GM and did did so with the Red Sox as well or worked for them. But in terms of being the number one guy in charge on the baseball side, the baseball president, can you win a championship with Jed as the baseball president? And I think it starts with, well, what what’s the plan? What’s the goal? Is the actual goal in the Cubs front office to win a World Series or is the goal to be competitive and be good for a really long time and hope that things work out at some point in the postseason? I’m a little bit concerned it’s too much the latter and not enough the former. The best example of that would be, you know, the trade deadline, right? this past trade deadline once Jed got extended right before it, you know, he didn’t make, you know, any aggressive aggressive moves. Now, of course, the counter, we all know, everybody knows the counter. It wasn’t a good market. Uh he he would have had to pay 200 cents if not more on the dollar, all those things. I understand it. And and he probably was right because I think Cade would have had to have been in one of those deals. But the point is is we’ve yet to see Jed really go out of his comfort zone um to make a big acquisition except for the Kyle Tucker trade. And that’s why that trade was so exciting because and I and I get it. It was right in Tom’s budget, but this isn’t about Tom. This is about Jed. And Jed was the one that had to give up Cam Smith and and and other guys. And I firmly believe that he would not I’m going to say it again. I firmly believe he would not have made that deal um if he had already been extended, right? That was an aggressive move. He knew he had to put a playoff team out there uh um you know to to get extended and keep his job longer. So when it comes to Jet, what does he do really well? Well, I think he’s really get and I think he’s even getting better at this just making good smart shrewd moves. I mean, just using the the, you know, last offseason. I mean, Matthew Boyd, beautiful. You know, Shotaa for the most part’s been really good. Um, you know, you look at, you know, the small things that I’m sure Carter Hawkins and Zombro and the pitching infrastructure is getting better with with uh Theelbar and Pomerance and, you know, Palencia took a step forward this year. Um, you know, there’s no bad contracts on the Cubs. You don’t look anywhere and go, that’s a brutal contract. The Danby Swanson contract is not a bad contract uh in a vacuum. The Ian Hap contract is not a bad contract uh um in a vacuum, but it’s also kind of like you look around the diamond and it’s just, you know, 20 million guy here, Seiya’s over there, JMO 18, you know, Danby be 27, uh Nico might sign an extension, and it’s like, you know, just kind of solid solid solid. Um, and then developing, you know, developing the the young players like Pete, Michael Bush, Matt Shaw, Kate Horton, etc. And, um, you know, being in a healthy place financially with with with flexibility beyond, uh, 2026, which we’ve talked about, and then, you know, still having a healthy enough farm system where you can turn those into assets and trade for guys and whatnot. It’s a very healthy place, but at some point I I still have apprehension if Jed will go out and make that championship move. And that’s the ultimate question that surrounds Jed Hoyer. Um I think he’s a good solid baseball president, but to win a World Series, um if you’re in that place, you got to go out and do it. You got to go out and make that move. And and what last trade deadline taught us and hopefully taught Jed is that sometimes you have to make those moves a little bit earlier than you’d like because the trade market might not be what you think it is at the end of July. So maybe the time to be aggressive is in the off season. Maybe the time to be aggressive is now. Okay, I get it. Oh, let’s just wait till after after the CBA. We know the Dodgers are really good. Well, the Blue Jays took him to seven games. You’re telling me you can’t add Kyle Schwarber or or some sort of bat like that? Figure out the rest later. And then you go trade for a guy like Joe Ryan or Mackenzie Gore, who whoever it is. And then you you rebuild your bullpen in the same way you did last year because you’ve earned that trust. You did an outstanding job with it. Is that to me that’s a a really really high level team. You add a Schwarber type of bat. You had a Joe Ryan type of arm. uh um with with Craig Councel at the helm, some of these young guys, the Dodgers trying to three Pete, I think the Cubs could hang with them and and at the very least pass up the Milwaukee Brewers, which they need to do at this point because no matter what we say about Tom Ricketts and everything that we say I think is fair, the Cubs have enough money to be better than the Milwaukee Brewers. So, they need to at least do that uh um starting in 2026. But, you know, life, sports, whatever, it’s about getting out of your comfort zone sometimes. And I just think the big question is, will Jed be able to make that move to get out of his comfort zone when it comes, hopefully it comes this off season, hopefully it comes this trade deadline that comes around pace to win 98 games. He’s got to go for it. Whatever it is to go for it. And sometimes when you go for it and it doesn’t work, it it’s it’s okay. You know what I mean? It’s okay. It’s like uh it’s like when when the Rockets should have beat the Warriors in 2018. They built their whole team. They went all in that year. Chris Paul got hurt. They came up short. It is what it is. But I’ll always respect that team because Daryl my Rockets, they went for it when everyone else was like, “Let’s just wait for Durant to leave Golden State. We don’t want to compete with them. We know we’re going to lose.” No, they went for it and and they came within, you know, one three-pointer or whatever it was of of being able to to beat them. I think this city is in a great place right now in terms of the sports with with the Bears and uh the Bears are starting to climb up. Um the Blackhawks I know nothing about, but I think they’re doing well. The Bulls are showing signs and and this city really appreciated the 2025 Cubs. Uh and I I I think there’s a world where you bring in a guy like Schwarber, you have a guy like PCA, you bring in a stud arm. Baseball’s kind of on its way back a little bit. Bill Simmons was talking about that on his the podcast on the Ringer, how baseball’s making a comeback. Well, what better way for baseball to complete a comeback if the Chicago Cubs are right there against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. And I I think the Cubs have the resources and tools to do that. But when I hear the GM meetings of just, you know, we’re going to just go pitching and, you know, guys like Pomerance and stuff, great, great. Those moves are great. But if you really want to play with the big boys, you got to make some big moves and you got to get out of your comfort zone. And um you know, that’s always been the question with Jed. I I think Jed is comfortable and likes operating with kind of a tighter budget like Tom gives him. Um and I wonder how Jed would operate if he could just, you know, if he had 300 million at his disposal. I still think he’d be really shrewd and calculated. Um, but he has to find that perfect Nicks because what he’s done so far is a good job overall. 2023 trade deadline, I think it cost the Cubs the playoffs most likely. I know Candelario was the best guy in the market. Whatever. 2024 wasn’t great. 2025 really, really solid. Now, are we going to stay really solid, take a step back, or ultimately go for it and take that step forward and really try and go for it? try to be a championship caliber team instead of saying all right well if we outperform projections and get to 91 92 and then maybe the playoffs anything can happen. I think it has to go beyond that and I think this front office has the tools the financial tools. Um I think they have the uh um you know young assets to really make a push in 2026 to to go from hey that Cubs team’s pretty good to this team could actually compete for a championship and at the very least uh pass the Milwaukee Brewers. So, um, it’s it’s yet to be proven. It’s yet to be answered if Jed’s a championship caliber baseball president, but I think it’s in there, and I’d love to see him come out of his comfort zone, uh, this off season. The last time the Chicago Cubs won a championship, um, there was a guy by the name of Kyle Hendris that had a lot to do with it. We talk about him and his retirement coming up next. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get into the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of the game and want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. 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We’re back here and I hope you guys had a chance, by the way, before we talk about Hendrickx to check out Matt’s episode from Thursday because I think it’s kind of a really interesting fit from what I just talked about in the first segment and what he was talking about Thursday about, you know, how the Cubs need to replace Kyle Tucker. Whether they bring him back, whether they bring him back or not, okay, if they don’t bring him back, you have to replace him. And what I’m talking about is that’s the exact type of thing I want to see Jed do because that would be a little bit out of his comfort zone, right? Uh, all the position players are accounted for. BAS could play DH. Matt posted the lineup yesterday. All looks good, right? I I I personally think there has to be an addition there to replace Tucker. And and that’s exactly what we’re talking about uh at the beginning of of this show with Jed coming out of his comfort zone and and and needing to to go from being just, hey, maybe, you know, maybe we’re going to be good versus, you know, let’s go and try and win a championship. So, we’ll see what happens uh with that situation. More more on that, by the way, uh with our best and worst of the week. But, I wanted to take the second segment of this show to just talk about Kyle Hendrickx uh who announced in a very Kyle Hendricks way that he was retiring this week. I I know we’ve done some tribute stuff with Kyle before with his last um you know his last game with the Cubs and I I’m sure somewhere in our archives we could find something but I just felt like it needed another segment uh especially in the offseason because it’s personal for me. He he he he really meant a lot to me. And the way I would describe Kyle or the way I would start by honoring Kyle Hendricks, who will be a first ballot Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer, I would assume, is the word the word relatability comes to mind and and for me, you know, my favorite athlete of all time, you guys know that, uh, is Lionel Messi. You know what I mean? And one of the reasons why it’s messy isn’t just because of what he does on the field. There’s a there’s a relatability about him. There’s a human element about him where it just is like, hey, you know, if I took a picture with him, I’d be four inches taller, but he could still be the greatest soccer player of all time by just, you know, you and not only just the way he’s he’s built, but the way he carries himself. It’s just very relatable and and that’s what struck me with Kyle Hendris. And then you add in the fact that, you know, he’s going to throw an 88 mph fast ball and, you know, his cut change up and his his demeanor on the mound. He just was very special and I just think very easy to root for. Um, you know, during that run between 2015 and 2020, you know, I always found found myself looking at Chris Bryant as the guy that needed to be the best player. Like if we had a show during that time, I’d be like, Cubs need Chris Bryant to be great for this thing to work. Very similar to Kyle Tucker. That’s why I’ve compared them a lot. I think they actually have very similar um talents and and things like that. And then, you know, Rizzo was the leader. Rizzo was the, you know, he’d be the guy where I’d say, “Man, that makes me emotional.” Like I do with Nico, you know, but Kyle was just always when whenever he took the mound. Um I always wanted to watch. Um, there were so many beautiful moments and it’s just in this day and age, especially with analytics. You gain more of an appreciation for somebody that just did it a little bit differently, did it a little bit against the grain, you know, and did it kind of his way, you know, uh, uh, he wasn’t blowing you away with 98. He didn’t have a fast ball like Shodas that had a ton of carry. He didn’t have natural cut on his fast ball like Justin Steel or Kate Horton. You know, he just, you know, he was Kyle Hendricks. He had his cut change up. He was very smart in the way that he pitched and um in his prime was one of the best pitchers in baseball uh in a very unique way. And um I just I I I always appreciated that. And I think, you know, when when you look back on his career, all the moments, it’s, you know, it’s it’s seriously it’s hard not to get emotional thinking about him going up against the best pitcher of a generation uh uh in game six of the World Series at Wrigley Field and dominating that Dodger lineup or taking the ball in game seven or taking the ball uh in Washington in the decider. He didn’t pitch well in that game, but they still won. um you know the the 81 pitch complete game shutout against the Cardinals and you know just the way he carried himself just just such a you know one of those guys that I don’t know him at all. I’ve never met him, never spoken with him. gonna probably try my best to get him on the show and see what I could do, but he just it’s impossible to think he’s not a great guy. you know, a after spending that much time watching him and you know, he he threw some of the most important games and you know, it’s it feels like for me, and I don’t know if it’s because Rizzo’s retired, now Hendrickx is retired, Lester, of course, is retired, um, Arietta is retired, um, you know, Bayz has been up and down, Chris Bryant obviously really struggling, Kyle Schwarber thriving, But for the most part, I don’t know what it is. I I’ve gotten a little bit more nostalgic lately about the 2016 group and that core group. I think it’s because this group, the Cubs team, got closer to winning a World Series. They still have a ways to go. And, you know, I was, we didn’t have the show in 2021, but I was I was hammering the table. It was time to sell. It’s time to move on from these guys. I really, really was. And I think that kind of because I was on the side of that, I think it made me a little bit less nostalgic of that team, of that era, and of those guys. And now that it’s starting to come to an end for some of them, uh, um, in baseball, like Hendrickx and Rizzo, um, you know, I think it’s time to start maybe honoring these guys more. It’s the 10-year anniversary of the World Series. We’ll see what the Cubs do for that. I know it’s kind of tricky with Contras because he’s still playing for the rival team, but you know, uh um it’s crazy. It’s crazy how how nine years passes by and how fast it can go and how appreciative you have to be to win because winning a championship, you know, when the Cubs won and 16, I think we all thought another one was coming right down the road. You just don’t know. You don’t know who’s going to struggle. You know, Chris Bryant was, you know, was a rookie of the year and then an MVP and a World Series champion after a year two. And, you know, who who would have known that his career would have gone that way? And who would have known that Schwarber would have hit 50 something home runs last year? It’s, you know, we sit here every day and talk. It’s hard to predict, but you have to appreciate it when it’s going on. Uh because if you don’t do that, you’re um you know, you’re missing out. And and there was nobody that I appreciated more every fifth day than Kyle Hendricks. And uh I I really hope that he, you know, stays with the team or comes back to the team, works for the team in some capacity and is involved in involved. I know I know he pitched for the Angels, but come on, you know, he he’s a Cub. That’s that’s that’s that’s who he is. And um my favorite Cubs pitcher of all time. Uh no question about it. Uh because he did it his way. Uh and he delivered when it mattered most. He was consistent every year. Uh it was obviously tough the last couple years to watch him struggle because I just think unfortunately with the way the league is now, you just can’t you have to miss bats a little bit. You can’t leave it all up to luck. And and Kyle was getting a lot of soft contact, but every other outing or every three or four outings was just a blowup start. And when you do that, your RA is going to balloon. And I think that’s probably why it was a good time for him to call quits. But doesn’t take anything away from a first ballot Chicago Cub Hall of Famer. um one of the greatest Cubs pitchers to ever step on the mound and in my opinion along with his teammate John Lester uh uh the best big game pitcher I’ve ever seen uh in a Cub uniform. So um hope you enjoy retirement Kyle. Um and if you’re watching, which you’re not, please you’re welcome on the show anytime. I think we could have a great conversation. Coming up next, we talk about best and worst of the week. I got some really bad stuff I’m frustrated about with our Cubs team. and we’re going to talk about that coming up next. All right, shout out to the Everydayers and you could become a Locked On Cubs every day by joining us for every episode throughout the week. And let me just start there. My best of the week, very simple. Um, and this is more of a best so far of the off seasonason. I think the energy from you guys this off season has been incredible. Um, I think it’s fed into amazing shows. I’m really, really proud so far of the offseason shows that Matt and I have put out. It feels like a little bit of a different energy. I don’t know why my hat keeps sliding up as I’m talking. Um, it feels just like a little bit different energy about them. Um, I they they’ve been really fun to do and I think a lot of that has to do with it’s the first time we’re coming off a really good season, a 90 plus win season. There’s buzz, like I said in the first segment, there’s buzz. There’s energy around this team. And um I would love to see them capitalize on that in the offseason. I’ll get to that in for my worst of the week. But my best of the week has just been really really fun shows um to do. You know, sometimes in the offseason, the season ends and it’s like, okay, let’s, you know, we’ll review the team and and we love doing this. Um, and we’re going to bring good shows no matter what. But they felt even a little bit more um, you know, just just special lately. I don’t know why. It just really felt really good. And I think it’s because the audience is has just been amazing. The comments, the engagement. Um, it’s been really really fun to do these offseason shows so far talking about all these different opportunities and get ways to get better. Uh, the back and forth between Matt and I. I think it’s been really fun. It’s all organic and um you know I think think he’s doing an awesome job with his solo shows. I’ve been loving watching those and um hope you guys are enjoying it because we’re enjoying your engagement. Uh worst of the week I have a few things. Um the the biggest thing is I I have three things. Um number one just the rhetoric that came out with the Cubs this week. Matt talked about it. I don’t want to repeat and step on his toes. He did a great job talking about it. I’ll just say it it was the worst of the week for me just listening to yeah pitching pitching that’s the best value and it it just screamed out exactly what bothered me and what I was talking about in the first segment with Jed. It just screamed out we have we have a lot of money invested in certain position players. We like where we’re at position-wise. So the place to invest is pitching because we could actually make it this is me paraphrasing everything. You know you can make a really nice trade um that fits in financially. You know, people people don’t realize when they traded for Tucker last year was a great financial move for the Cubs and Rickettts. It didn’t cost them a lot of money financially. They’re going to do that same type of thing with a pitcher and sign another one. And we just all it just it just feels very predictable. And I hope that it’s just words and that we see different things because I just find it very hard to believe that you could convince a very smart fan base like the Chicago Cubs that this is going to be a better team than last year. if you lose Kyle Tucker and then don’t replace him, you know, and I love Mo Bayos. I think he’s got a chance to be really special, but that’s putting a lot on a 22-y old kid with 57 at bats, right, to replace him, assuming, say it would go to right by a steros with DH. That’s just a lot. That’s just a lot to put on him. Um, I think people are confused a little bit with my take on Tucker. I just don’t think he’s a $400 million dollar guy, $350 million guy, but he’s still a guy that you have to replace. I if he goes, like Matt was saying, you know, when Kyle Tucker was good, this offense was special. When Kyle Tucker wasn’t, uh, it wasn’t. And when he wasn’t playing, they weren’t a very good offense either. They need that type of guy. We talked about it all off seasonason last year. They need that type of guy. I’m okay with it not being Kyle Tucker, but you have to go out and get somebody that resembles that. um in in my opinion to keep this momentum moving or you’re really putting a lot of hope in Matt Shaw, Moises Biasos, Pete Cor Armstrong to get to levels that you know hopefully they’re ready to get to, but they might not be. They’re really young guys. So, I just wasn’t a huge fan of the GM meetings and the rhetoric that came out of that. Um I I I love the idea of of of pitching um and you know, run prevention, but you know, you scored one run in game five against the Brewers. Uh you can have great pitching and great run prevention. It’s hard to to keep a team down for zero. You know, got to score some runs. Um the other worst of the week, uh I have two more. Uh uh Scott Boris, uh at the GM meetings, just starting to get a little bit tired of him. Um with and that’s a compliment because it means he’s doing his job great. Just feels like every offseason he’s got all the big free agents this year besides Tucker. Um, I sometimes I don’t even realize the guys he’s representing and you just know when he’s in charge how much of a headache it’s going to be, how much of a long negotiation it’s going to be. There’s going to be some guys that come in in February and it’s um, you know, I I just I are there any other agents out there? Uh, you know, is that something maybe that I can apply for? You know, does anybody need representation? You know, I think I’d make a really good agent. I really do. Don’t you guys? Nah, I uh I probably wouldn’t, but um man, that’d be be fun to do. It seems like there’s pretty much one guy doing everything right now. And you know, I’m getting a little bit tired of it. And the last thing is uh just on a personal level, for the third time since uh mid June, I’ve chipped the same tooth. I’m sure you guys probably noticed it. I’ll get uh some comments on it right in the front there. Have to get that fixed um as you’re listening to this Friday morning. Don’t know what’s going on there. Um, you know, I do a show for a living on YouTube, so I’d like to look somewhat presentable and, um, my teeth keep chipping. So, um, not great. Uh, not great there. And, um, but a good a great week of shows. Uh, like I said, appreciate you guys and would love to see Jed Hoyer. Can can Jed Hoyer get out of his comfort zone? uh like we talked about in the first segment, you know, just to be specific, what would that mean? Going to get a bat even though the Cubs may not quote need a bat, right? Going out and and and you know, thinking a step ahead. Hey, you know what? Our offense was good last year and you know what, we could use some pitching help, but but let’s just figure out a way to do both. I think even though the finances are limited, I think he has the ability to do that. Go build. Don’t I don’t want to see a team that’s just 88 to 92 93 every year. Let’s go try and win a title. And that’s that’s another conversation for a different day. I’d love Matt and I to have like what’s more valuable? Winning a title one year and then being bad for the next four or five or being fairly close for four or five straight years, but not winning one. For me, I’m I’m looking for a title. I’m looking for rings. I want championships. I’ve seen I’ve seen the 2016 Cubs win a title. Like I said, I’m not a hockey guy, so I didn’t get a chance to enjoy those. and I saw Messi win a World Cup. That’s it. I’d like to get a third ring, you know. Um, go go go for it. Go try and win a championship. Worry about the CBA later, you know, take some risks. We’ll see. Um, you know, based on Matt’s episode yesterday and and some of the stuff we’re hearing, it doesn’t sound great, but the off season is just beginning. I’m Sam Ober. This is Locked On Cubs, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Have a terrific weekend everybody. Appreciate you.

Sam discusses Jed Hoyer’s job so far with the Chicago Cubs and if he can get himself and the Cubs to another level. He then honors Kyle Hendricks and finishes up the show with best and worst of the week.

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