Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer responds to questions during MLB’s winter meetings in December in Nashville, Tenn.
AP
When Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer gave his end of season address Tuesday, one topic was the mighty wind of Wrigley Field.
Specifically, the wind was blowing in more often than usual this year. This suggests maybe the offensive performance of Cody Bellinger and some others were better than the numbers showed.
“It was really difficult to assess (the offense) when you think about how Wrigley Field played this year,” Hoyer said. “Last year, Wrigley was the seventh-best offensive park in baseball. This year it was 29th, and after last weekend it might be 30th.”
The stats are striking. On the road this season, the Cubs ranked sixth in MLB with a .746 collective OPS. At home, they were 27th at .670.
One way to fix that would be to rotate the stadium 180 degrees, putting the bleachers on the corner of Clark and Addison. The wind would blow out more often and the team’s slugging percentage would soar. Make climate change work to their advantage.
Individually, Michael Busch (.683/.855) and Seiya Suzuki (.766/.914) had the biggest home vs. road OPS splits. Bellinger was .700 and .797. Ian Happ and Dansby Swanson were better hitters at Wrigley, for whatever reason.
“There’s no reason to think it’s going to play like that again,” Hoyer said. “It could. We know (the wind) has a massive impact, but also building good, solid teams that are well-rounded is the best.”
The Cubs finished 83-79 for the second year in a row. They did not improve, despite two new acquisitions — pitcher Shota Imanaga and Busch — performing well, and hiring manager Craig Counsell away from Milwaukee.
Cubs starting pitcher Shota Imanaga delivers home during a game last month in Chicago.
AP
Hoyer admitted the expectation this year was to be in the playoffs, which makes the season a disappointment.
“We need to get back to the postseason for these fans,” he said. “I think that’s what the fans deserve and we’ll get there.”
When it comes to non-weather-related, controllable issues, Hoyer took blame for the early-season bullpen problems. The plan coming out of spring training flew out the window when Adbert Alzolay, Yency Almonte and Julian Merryweather were injured, while Hector Neris had his ups and downs. Eventually, the bullpen turned into a strength as the Cubs had success with Porter Hodge and some new additions.
“Being self critical, I felt that was something I didn’t do a good job of last off-season,” Hoyer said. “When those guys struggled and were hurt early, we didn’t have enough depth in that moment and that hurt us. So that’s something we have to address.”
There weren’t many predictions from Hoyer about off-season moves, but the Cubs don’t have a ton of room to maneuver. Happ, Suzuki and Swanson have no-trade clauses. Bellinger has a player option, so it’s his call on whether he returns.
In theory, the Cubs could pursue more slugging in free-agency by chasing Baltimore’s Anthony Santander or the Mets’ Pete Alonso. Neither option seems likely if Bellinger returns at $27.5 million.
They could go after a starting pitcher like Baltimore’s Corbin Burnes or Atlanta’s Max Fried. At the same time, the Cubs already have Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon, Javier Assad, Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks and Cade Horton coming back as potential starters, the last three spending most of 2024 on the injured list.
“You don’t want to take wild swings and you don’t want to do things that are going to expose you long-term,” Hoyer said. “The goal here is getting to a place where the playoffs are the expectation every single year. I do think getting back to making good decision on a long-term basis — drafting, developing well, truly having a healthy organization — can lead us to that sustained success.”
The player most likely to be traded might be Nico Hoerner, because his contract allows it and the Cubs could plug in 2023 first-round pick Matt Shaw at second base. But there’s a wide range of possible outcomes.
Hoyer pointed out that all 12 playoff teams had at least one player with a WAR above 5.0. According to fangraphs.com, the Cubs leader was Swanson with a 4.3, followed by Hoerner at 3.9. Obviously, defense is a big part of that.
“Stars can help you get through those slumps,” Hoyer said. “No one really had that carrying year that Cody had last year. I do think we missed that. I think there’s a number of guys on our roster that can absolutely do that going forward.”
Hoyer doubled down on last year’s surprising decision to replace David Ross with Counsell, even though the team’s record didn’t improve. He expects Counsell to have input in the team’s offseason plans.
“I’m very confident when we’re staring back at that contract in Year 5 that’s going to be pretty clear that it was a great decision,” Hoyer said. “I couldn’t be happier he’s here.”
While the door is not closed completely on a Kyle Hendricks return, Hoyer paid tribute to the last remaining player from the 2016 World Series team.
“He’s as good a teammate as I’ve ever been around; the lowest-maintenance employee I’ve ever been around,” he said. “Just conducts himself in such a perfect way all the time. For him to get that kind of send-off (Saturday) was amazing.”