Article: HOLY HORSEFEATHERS: Cubs Hire Craig Counsell as New Manager

[Matthew Trueblood]

In a shocking move, the Cubs have swooped in to steal the best manager in baseball from their fiercest division rival. Let's talk Craig Counsell.

Image courtesy of © Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

Jed Hoyer has, somehow, outdone and upstaged his longtime partner and mentor, Theo Epstein. When Craig Counsell became a managerial free agent last week, Hoyer quietly went to work, and he has now pulled off a managerial coup as big (in a vacuum) as the Cubs landing Joe Maddon nine years ago. Instead of plucking him from the Rays (by way of an RV park in Florida), though, Hoyer took Counsell from the Milwaukee Brewers. 

This is an enormous move, because the gulf in managerial nous between Counsell and David Ross is as wide as that between Maddon and Rick Renteria was. Year after year, the Brewers have overperformed their run differentials and their raw talent levels under Counsell. He's guided them to impressively strong finishes, and he manages the in-game decisions better than any other active skipper. Even without making material improvements to the roster itself (which are and should still be expected), this change makes the Cubs significantly better. They're now the favorites to win the NL Central in 2024, and with the right moves, they should be taken seriously as World Series contenders.

Admittedly, as was the case with Renteria, this is a somewhat cruel denouement for Ross. As we've discussed several times on this site in the last eight months, though, Ross just wasn't ever going to be the guy who got this team back over the hump. He's a great baseball person and an asset to a big-league organization, but not a good manager. Counsell is, arguably, the very best manager in baseball. This changes everything.

Ken Rosenthal reports that Counsell will make more than $40 million on a five-year guaranteed contract. That's an unprecedented combination of lucrative and lengthy, but it's exactly what we should have expected, based on the fact that the Cubs are actively displacing a low-grade franchise icon in order to land him and that he had the opportunity to sell his services to the highest bidders.

Counsell getting five-year contract from Cubs worth more than $40M, league sources tell @TheAthletic. Will be highest-paid manager.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 6, 2023

A move this grand can't help but have a massive effect on the plan for the rest of this offseason. The Cubs were already expected to spend fairly significant money and push past at least one tier of the competitive-balance tax thresholds. While Counsell's success all came in a market so small as to head off most major free-agent outlays, you have to think some high-profile stars will have interest in coming to play under a skipper with this much star power. It just got easier and more urgent that the team spend major resources to get better in the short and medium term, and it's unlikely that the team would have made this change if they didn't think it facilitates that kind of ambitious movement.

The Cubs didn't just beat the market, here. They're creating a wholly new one, as Counsell told confidants he wanted to do all along. We live in an era of persistently diminishing influence and prestige for managers, and that's been reflected in the fact that their pay hasn't increased as much as those of either players or front office personnel over the last 20 years. This goes some way toward changing that.

The Brewers offered Craig Counsell in the neighborhood of $5.5 million per season, which would have easily made him the highest-paid manager in MLB.

Everyone expected the Mets to throw $7 million per season (or more) at Counsell.

No one expected the Cubs to do so.

Wow.

— Todd Rosiak (@Todd_Rosiak) November 6, 2023

What moves does this make you hope to see? How many wins better did the Cubs just get, instantly? Can't wait to talk about it more. 

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[CubinNY]

No horsefeathers way!!!!!! 

Best move of the offseason.

Also, you could knock me over with a feather right now. I never would have thought that would happen. 

Edited November 6, 2023 by CubinNY

[Outshined_One]

It's so refreshing to have a team in Chicago that looks at "good, but not great" results and decides to upgrade when the opportunity presents itself.

What a coup.  I'm still floored by this.

[NorthsideAvenger]

This feels like Joe Maddin 2.0. So who will be the Jon Lester?

[CubinNY]

1 minute ago, NorthsideAvenger said:

This feels like Joe Maddin 2.0. So who will be the Jon Lester?

TT says, Aaron Nola

[sneakypower]

hell yeah, this also really seems like a clear harbinger of a "pushing our chips in the pot" type of off-season

[NorthsideAvenger]

Just now, CubinNY said:

TT says, Aaron Nola

He feels like a more expensive Marcus Stroman.

[Jason Ross]

Probably good news for Cubs young position players. Counsell never shied away from using young players, playing players like Turang, Weimer and Frelick pretty often and giving leash. Maybe that was because of sheer necessity, but I'd expect he'll have a similar temperament with young players.

Edited November 6, 2023 by 1908_Cubs

[CubinNY]

If I were a Brewer fan, I'd be inconsolable.

[Jason Ross]

Also, don't forget this: the Brewers are the definitive team when it comes to teaching catching framing. Like, the absolute best. Assume part of that staff is coming with.

[Bertz]

Things I'm excited for

- I generally liked Ross, but I do think he was slow to allow guys into the circle of trust.  Particularly with the bullpen, Counsell's going to be a lot quicker to throw stuff monsters like Daniel Palencia, Luke Little, and Ben Brown into the mix

- I don't know how much Brewers devil magic is left at this point (I feel like I haven't wondered how they're pulling it off in like 2-3 years), but now it's gone.  If Craig can bring it here awesome, but at minimum the veil is lifted

- Brewers fans are going to be sooooo salty about this

Things I'm not excited for:

- Counsell's a whiner.  I get working the umps, it unfortunately works and is thus the right/smart thing to do, but I still kind of hate it

[JBears79]

Wow. I didn't see this coming at all. Thought for sure he would land with the Mets and Stearns

[Ding Dong Johnson]

4 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Things I'm not excited for:

- Counsell's a whiner.  I get working the umps, it unfortunately works and is thus the right/smart thing to do, but I still kind of hate it

This is a good quality when it's your manager. Move this to your "Things I'm excited for" list.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

6 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Things I'm not excited for:

- Counsell's a whiner.  I get working the umps, it unfortunately works and is thus the right/smart thing to do, but I still kind of hate it

[NorthsideAvenger]

9 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

If I were a Brewer fan, I'd be inconsolable.

Losing Stearns and Counsell inside of 2 years would frustrate the hell out of me, if I was a Brew fan. 

[Irrelevant Dude]

9 minutes ago, Bertz said:

- Counsell's a whiner.  I get working the umps, it unfortunately works and is thus the right/smart thing to do, but I still kind of hate it

Is he?  I haven't ever got that impression from him (any more than any other manager) when watching the games.  He always seemed pretty level-headed to me.

[WrigleyField 22]

Holy horsefeathers

[Thusly Boned]

I love this.

[Irrelevant Dude]

Playing devil's advocate here, what if this is the Cubs' attempt to "add" without going crazy into luxury tax territory?  Since manager salaries don't contribute to the tax calculation, maybe they saw this as an opportunity to pick up 1-2 more wins over the course of the season without tax implications.

[chopsx9]

WTF!  Is Dancing With Stars still on?

[Bertz]

 

 

[Jason Ross]

7 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Playing devil's advocate here, what if this is the Cubs' attempt to "add" without going crazy into luxury tax territory?  Since manager salaries don't contribute to the tax calculation, maybe they saw this as an opportunity to pick up 1-2 more wins over the course of the season without tax implications.

I think the Cubs would have a hard time justifying that. You can't break the literal record for money given to a manager then cry poor all offseason. As much as we're excited today, I think we're excited for the implications of Counsell more so than anything. If the Cubs can't come through on that, the love you see today would quicky turned to anything but.

[WhyCantWeWin]

9 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Playing devil's advocate here, what if this is the Cubs' attempt to "add" without going crazy into luxury tax territory?  Since manager salaries don't contribute to the tax calculation, maybe they saw this as an opportunity to pick up 1-2 more wins over the course of the season without tax implications.

He was known for doing more with a lesser payroll in Milwaukee so that's a really plausible reality. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

An absolute coup. NOBODY saw this coming. I have to admit my respect for Hoyer just jumped upward quite a bit. 

[ILMindState]

9 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

I think the Cubs would have a hard time justifying that. You can't break the literal record for money given to a manager then cry poor all offseason. As much as we're excited today, I think we're excited for the implications of Counsell more so than anything. If the Cubs can't come through on that, the love you see today would quicky turned to anything but.

Can't wait for the press conference introducing Ohtani, Soto, Yamamoto, and Hader to the Cubs