Jed Hoyer shares Cubs’ 2025 MLB Winter Meetings focus | Marquee Sports Network

Jed Hoyer shares Cubs’ 2025 MLB Winter Meetings focus | Marquee Sports Network

Maybe just to start just what are you what are you kind of maybe hoping to accomplish over these couple days just you know with everyone kind of being in one one place. Yeah, I think we always try to tell ourselves at the beginning of these meetings that like you there’s no finish line at the end of this. You you know a lot of deals happen after this. Um this is kind of a continuation of the offseason, but you know um everyone’s in the same place. There’s a lot more phone calls. There’s a lot more ideas. is I think people take things a hair more seriously when they’re here and trying to move the ball forward. So, um th this is sort of the beginning of the real off season in a lot of ways and so like as a result people are more you kind of more willing to exchange ideas, be creative and you know work late and you know sort of be in the same place. So I think that um interest interesting things always happen. There’s always ideas or things that come up here that that haven’t before which is one of the nice things about um about the winter meetings. So, um, I think that’s kind of how it is already and I expect it, you know, to continue. How difficult is it for you to weigh the trade market versus the free agent market even though we have quality players on both and how that fits into your short and longterm plan? Yeah, I mean that one thing you’re always trying to figure out um in every offseason is timing. you know, trying to figure out the timing of of the off seasonason and, you know, you know, when are when are trades going to happen, when are free agents gonna sign, how are how do those things interrelate? So, I think that that that is a challenging balance um and one that I mean, we probably spend most of our time talking about. Can we go back um midtime? Uh considering you just said this is kind of the beginning, like that seems early. So, Why did why was that unusually early and did you Yeah. competition for him? Yeah, that part of the market moved quickly um as you guys saw it was it and you could kind of feel that um in the market with the urgency of the agents calls and stuff like that and he was a guy that we you know we had very good numbers on very good reports on and u we knew he was going to be a target um and so we went after him pretty quickly. um in part just given the way the rest of the market was looking. We felt like this was just a really good picture on on a contract we felt like was the right deal for us. So um yeah, that part of the market moved it moved fast on that. You don’t often give up multi-year deals to relievers. Why why did it make sense in this case? Well, I think you know yes, that was the first one. Um we’ve offered we’ve offered them. We’ve apparently haven’t offered enough. Um but uh yeah, I mean I think that I’ve never I’ve always said I’m not not totally against it. I do prefer to to build bullpens um you know given the volatility I think it’s the the right place to um take a volume approach to use our pitching guys to you know believe in guys and guys they can get better and try to develop those guys as well as possible. And so I’ I’d rather um spend our resources on probably areas of less volatility volatility honestly. Um but at the same time, you know, bullpens are really important and um you we’ve offered some in the past. We offer obviously offered one to to Metton that he accepted. So we’re not against it, but I do prefer that the approach that we normally take. Do you think you could still sign someone like multi-year or high leverage no doubt high leverage arm? Is that market you’re still aggressive in? Yeah. Yeah. I think we could we’ll we’ll we’ll be in that market. Um whether we end up signing someone or not, I don’t know. Depends on if you know how other teams value them, honestly. But yeah, I think that we can definitely be in that market and we’re obviously going to sign more relievers this offseason. The the volatility of bullpen arms as you would structure a uh payroll being up to maybe almost 25% for some teams even in big markets. How How does that change the dynamic of, you know, judging the off season and, you know, residual amounts of money left to Yeah. operate? I think every team has to make their own decisions on how they allocate resources and um I’m not saying the way we choose like other teams may choose to put really big blocks in the bullpen and I think that that’s up to them. I think, you know, in how I see it is I think that rather use those those kind of big chunks of of of money to to go get, you know, whether it’s starting pitching or position players. The way he profiles, you think probably not a ninth any guy. You can go talk to Craig, but I would get her as much. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. But it sounds like you’d be open to maybe signing a kind of opening day Is there like an obvious solution? I would I wouldn’t say we’re against it. Just um you know, like I said, we’ll be in on the relief market. We’re definitely talking to agents of relievers, but like I said, a lot depends on, you know, usually end up having to be the high bid. So, is there since we last talked, is there anything about the market that surprised you or made you want to change the way you attack this off season? Um the relief market was quicker than I mean last year. Um most of those deals that got signed were like kind of like after convention. Um and so that’s how I mark time I guess. Um so this year it felt like a little quicker. That surprised me that that that was happening even before Thanksgiving. That’s unusual. Um, no. I think I think that’s like something we talk about all the time is trying to gauge the market and um there’s been a you know sometimes you’re you hear things you think things are going to move they don’t. So you’re constantly trying to gauge you know when things are going to move or how how that’s going to happen. So I think that’s a constant source of conversation but nothing surprised me this year so far other than the fact that a bunch of the the better relievers went off the market early. How much did Show’s decision kind of impact what you were trying to do or what you’re still trying to do with adding to the rotation? Um, well, it gave us another, you know, we didn’t know if he was going to be back, so it gave us another good starting pitcher. So, that I guess it gave some clarity as far as um the rotation. It gave us some clarity as far as available dollars. Um, and we thought it was a, you know, we we knew going in there was there was a possibility that that that could happen. Um, and a good and a good thing. I mean, I think that we have a, you know, a really good pitcher, uh, you know, like Shota back and we’re excited about it and, um, you know, the recency of of Shota wasn’t the last, you know, call it four to six weeks. We weren’t his best, but I think prior to that, he he pitched great for us and we we expect that again. So, it did it did add some clarity to the offseason and what we were looking for. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]

Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer addresses the media at the 2025 MLB Winter Meetings in Orlando, Fla., and shares what he hopes to accomplish during the three-day event. Hoyer also discusses the Cubs’ decision to sign reliever Phil Maton before the winter meetings and much more.

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Jed Hoyer shares Cubs’ 2025 MLB Winter Meetings focus | Marquee Sports Network