The late-night/early-morning spot asks if you what it would take for you to give Cubs team president Jed Hoyer an extension.
It’s another evening here at BCB After Dark: the grooviest gathering of night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We’re so glad to see you. Come in and join us. There’s no cover charge. Tell us if you need anything. The hostess will seat you now. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
Tonight the Cubs throttled the Nationals, 8-3, moving to 16 games over .500. Michael Busch had three hits and came a double shy of the cycle. Cade Horton moved to 3-0 to start his career. The Cardinals and the Brewers both lost, so the Cubs now hold a five-game lead over St. Louis and six games over Milwaukee.
Last night I asked you which Diamondbacks pitcher, if any, would you like to see the Cubs acquire at the trade deadline? Between Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen, you picked Gallen by a margin of 39 percent to 24. The other 38 percent would rather the Cubs pass on both.
On Tuesday night, I don’t normally do a movie essay. But I always have time for jazz, so those of you who skip that can do so now. You won’t hurt my feelings.
Tonight we have keyboardist Robert Glasper, alongside singer Yebba on PBS’s Austin City Limits with what their blurb calls “next-generation jazz.” You can call it that, you can call it fusion or you can just call it an extension of what Glasper tries to do with unifying traditional Black musical genres on his Black Radio series of albums.
This is “Over.” The performance aired in January of 2024.
Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.
As you may or may not know (and if you’re a regular reader around here I think you probably do know), Cubs team president Jed Hoyer is in the final year of his five-year contract. You can make the argument that the Cubs were playing for Jed Hoyer’s job this year. Had the Cubs put up another 83-win season (or, gasp, worse), it seems like it would be a good bet that someone else would be in charge of the Cubs in 2026. But right now, the team is 16 games over .500 at the 60-game point. They have the best run differential in the majors and, depending on how the Mets game in Los Angeles went tonight, they have either the best or second-best record in the National League.
Things haven’t always looked so good for the Cubs. The first two seasons under Hoyer were pretty awful, as the core of the 2016 World Series champions were not extended and traded away before they reached free agency. The trade of Yu Darvish and the non-tendering of Kyle Schwarber may have been dictated by ownership demanding salary cuts after the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean they were handled well by Hoyer.
Things looked brighter the past two seasons, but in both years, the Cubs faded down the stretch and out of the playoffs. Certainly a lack of pitching depth cost the Cubs in 2023, and that could be Hoyer’s fault.
But on the flip side, Hoyer made some very savvy trades in 2021 that are just paying off now. Getting Pete Crow-Armstrong for two months of Javier Báez and a little over a year of Trevor Williams looks like it could be one of the great steals of all time. Getting Daniel Palencia for Andrew Chafin looked like a minor deal in 2021, but where would the 2025 Cubs be without it? Ben Brown for two months of David Robertson looks smart, even if Brown is maddeningly inconsistent at the moment. The jury is still out on whether Kevin Alcántara will justify the Anthony Rizzo deal. The Cubs’ return for Kris Bryant turned out to be a bust, but then again, unfortunately so did Kris Bryant.
Hoyer also signed two Japanese stars in Shōta Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki that were considered to be “consolation prizes” to bigger names in the free agent and international markets, but both have been huge contributors. And while you can argue that the Cubs gave up too much for Michael Busch, what you can’t argue is that the Cubs got one of the best first basemen in the league for two guys that are still in the minor leagues.
Hoyer has been criticized for not devoting resources to the bullpen and it certainly may have cost the Cubs a playoff spot in 2023. But this year he seems to have purchased an elite bullpen out of stuff he found at Goodwill. Drew Pomeranz was acquired in May for cash. Brad Keller and Chris Flexen were non-roster invitees.
Then of course, there is Hoyer hiring Dan Kantrovitz as the new scouting director. Kantrovitz’s first draft was a bit of a bust, but there was an extenuating circumstance that no one was actually playing games because of the pandemic. Since then, he’s managed to land Jordan Wicks in the first round in 2021, Cade Horton in 2022, Matt Shaw in 2023 and Cam Smith in 2024. Horton and Shaw are important rookies on this year’s team and Smith was used to land Kyle Tucker.
Jesse Rogers said that he thinks that Hoyer will get an extension before the All-Star Break. He’s just making an educated guess there, but if Hoyer has done enough to keep his job this year, the Cubs would want to lock him up before he starts making decisions at the draft and trade deadline. You don’t want the last guy making a bunch of decisions that the new guy has to live with, if there is going to be a new guy.
But do you think that Hoyer has done enough to get a contract extension? If not, what do you think the Cubs have to do for him to get one? I assume that if the Cubs win the World Series this year, that very few of you would be calling for Hoyer to lose his job. I think that if the Cubs fail to make the playoffs in all five years of Hoyer’s tenure, I think most of you would be in favor of a change. But what if it’s something in-between? Is a World Series loss good enough? What about a League Championship Series loss to the Dodgers?
So tell me what the Cubs have to do this year for you to think Jed Hoyer should keep his job?
I get that “Win a playoff series” and “Make the LCS” could be identical if the Cubs earn a bye in the playoffs. But you can work out the difference yourself.
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