USA Today: Friction in Cubs Front Office - Jed Hoyer will return in 2025

[Jason Ross]

Quote

There is internal friction in the Chicago Cubs’ front office, high-ranking officials say, but despite their disappointing season, Jed Hoyer, president of baseball operations, will return in 2025.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2024/09/08/mlb-standings-trade-deadline-michael-kopech/75128155007/

 

Figured there's two things important in this blurb;

1. That there is "internal" friction. Hard to tell what that internal friction is...is it Hawkins and Hoyer? Is it ownership and the FO? 

2. That Hoyer will return in 2025. I know many would like that to be a different case, but does seem as though this is the confirmation he'll return.

Obviously the caveat here is "Bob Nightingale wrote it" and there's a bit of hesitancy to always buy his information. With that said, this feels significant regardless. 

[CubinNY]

Anytime things don't go as planned I think these stories kind of write themselves. I'd guess the kids and/or papa isn't happy with the return on investment in terms of winning. I can't imagine Hawkins and Jed being the issue, but who knows? Jed may be upset at the spending limits or maybe they told him Soto is out of the question. Just listening to Tom and looking at his face makes me want to punch him. I don't know how Jed or Theo put up with him. 

I think they need to fire the trainers and conditioning people immediately and find new and better ones. 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2024 by CubinNY

[Bertz]

Nightengale tends to be more reliable on stuff like this?  Like he's led the charge on a lot of White Sox news for instance.  I think he's super dumb and gullible and agents abuse the hell out of that, but something like this that isn't really worth gamifying I'd tend to buy.

Friction could be anything.  I'd guess some combination of Jed not liking his resources and Tom not liking the deliberate pace of this build, rather than anything within baseball ops.  Maybe there's some Jed/Craig beef on which coaches stick around next year?

[CubinNY]

7 minutes ago, Bertz said:

  Maybe there's some Jed/Craig beef on which coaches stick around next year?

I bet that is as close to the truth as we will ever get.

[Rob]

Extend Jed or fire him. I don't particularly care which.

The one thing I don't want is a lame duck GM who tries to save his job by signing doomed contracts and making bad trades that will help in the short-term, but sink the team in the long run.

[jersey cubs fan]

Internal friction in front office doesn’t read like an ownership thing, it sounds like a president/gm/asst GM/scouting/development thing. 
 

Hoyer returning sounds like whoever is on other end of feud is leaving. My guess is Hawkins or Kantrovitz. Obviously it’s a terribly run organization and a lot of these people have to see it, especially coming from organizations that aren’t as sloppy as Hoyers cubs have been. 

[sneakypower]

Quote

On the North Side, the Cubs fired four younger scouts while slashing their budget. The Cubs also told their scouting department that they no longer will scout games at any level except the complex league and Dominican Summer League.

wait what

[Jason Ross]

53 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Nightengale tends to be more reliable on stuff like this?  Like he's led the charge on a lot of White Sox news for instance.  I think he's super dumb and gullible and agents abuse the hell out of that, but something like this that isn't really worth gamifying I'd tend to buy.

Friction could be anything.  I'd guess some combination of Jed not liking his resources and Tom not liking the deliberate pace of this build, rather than anything within baseball ops.  Maybe there's some Jed/Craig beef on which coaches stick around next year?

Yeah, I don't think Bob's wrong here. Just mostly...the general caveat people give when anything Nightengale is brought up.

[Jason Ross]

I wonder if the "internal friction" is Jed and Crane Kenney. Crane seems like someone who you could have friction with...maybe moreso than ownership.

[jersey cubs fan]

31 minutes ago, sneakypower said:

wait what

Kantrovitz will be gone if this is true 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Just now, jersey cubs fan said:

Kantrovitz will be gone if this is true 

I'm not sure I follow, are you saying fewer in-person scouting resources -> less impact for Kantrovitz so he chooses to take another gig?

[CubinNY]

35 minutes ago, sneakypower said:

wait what

This can't be a financial decision, Can it? I mean those guys probably make the concessions profit from the 1st to the 5th inning of a random Wrigley game. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

7 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

This can't be a financial decision, Can it? I mean those guys probably make the concessions profit from the 1st to the 5th inning of a random Wrigley game. 

I suspect it's a resource allocation thing. In other words, they think video access plus the trackman data they get is sufficient as a default since they can always get in-person looks of specific targets as needed, this also explains why they keep an in-person presence in the complex/DSL where that data doesn't exist. So they put that money into e.g. amateur scouting or coaching or w/e.

[UMFan83]

So is Jed going to come back as a lame duck in 2025?  Are they going to sign him to an extension or let him play out his contract?  Is it normal for the head of baseball operations to let his contract expire without an extension?

[Stratos]

I'm glad there's friction.  Everyone in the FO should be PO'd at this season.  And the fact that guys like Hendricks and Mastrobuoni haven't been released let alone in the starting lineup.

[Stratos]

2 hours ago, CubinNY said:

Just listening to Tom and looking at his face makes me want to punch him.

Put this on a plaque.

[jersey cubs fan]

58 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

I'm not sure I follow, are you saying fewer in-person scouting resources -> less impact for Kantrovitz so he chooses to take another gig?

If there’s front office friction and scouting budgets are being slashed then I’m guessing somebody in the scouting department who is used to working for a competent organization could be getting frustrated and is involved in the friction. 
 

somebody with a good resume who could be in a position to be picky about his employment would make sense. Some lower level schmoe might not have the same freedom 

[Backtobanks]

3 hours ago, Rob said:

Extend Jed or fire him. I don't particularly care which.

The one thing I don't want is a lame duck GM who tries to save his job by signing doomed contracts and making bad trades that will help in the short-term, but sink the team in the long run.

How about a lame duck President of baseball operations who actually saves his jub by spending money wisely and making good trades that will help short term without hurting things long term.  Unfortunately, I don't think Hoyer has the brains or the cajónes to do it.

[Eeyore]

All that I got out of that is that they're still struggling due to the biblical losses from the pandemic. Had to settle for a medium sized yacht and all of the other billionaires laugh at them so they had to cut costs.

Edited September 9, 2024 by Eeyore

[Irrelevant Dude]

39 minutes ago, Backtobanks said:

How about a lame duck President of baseball operations who actually saves his jub by spending money wisely and making good trades that will help short term without hurting things long term.  Unfortunately, I don't think Hoyer has the brains or the cajónes to do it.

Hoyer will never hurt things long term, because he isn't willing to take a big enough risk that it could actually hurt the team in the future.  Instead we get persistent mediocrity in the short term.

[Wilson A2000]

3 hours ago, 1908_Cubs said:

I wonder if the "internal friction" is Jed and Crane Kenney. Crane seems like someone who you could have friction with...maybe moreso than ownership.

I might be misunderstanding what front office is, but I thought that was separate from the business side. I thought front office was considered baseball ops. 

[Bertz]

21 minutes ago, Wilson A2000 said:

I might be misunderstanding what front office is, but I thought that was separate from the business side. I thought front office was considered baseball ops. 

Right, Crane is Jed's equivalent on the business side.  So there may be friction between them, e.g. Jed not happy with the amount of cash coming his way or Crane not being happy having to try and market a team that mostly fell out of playoff contention shortly after Memorial Day.

[Irrelevant Dude]

Regarding the scout firings, clearly someone had to go to offset the $500 the Cubs are going to pay in luxury taxes.

[Cuzi]

David Ross was also definitely going to be the manager for 2024.

[Bertz]

8 minutes ago, Cuzi said:

David Ross was also definitely going to be the manager for 2024.

There is zero inkling that a primo GM is available for PTR to throw a bag of money at.  And we're well past the era where you just hire the #2 in Tampa and assume they are automatically awesome.

I think for Tom to dump Jed early it would have to be a dramatic situation like Theo, Maddon, or Counsell.  I don't think some pragmatic "Ya know, Jerry Dipoto and Carter Hawkins would really compliment each other really well" type of deal spurs him into action.