Jed Hoyer’s Advocate
Which seems akin to being the Devil’s advocate right now.
Cubs top baseball guy, Jed Hoyer, has a very defined mission this offseason: Get one of the top four free agent shortstops to sign with the Cubs. Yes, other moves need to be made, but if he doesn’t accomplish his mission, there will be significant fan backlash.
Honestly, Chicago sports fans are tired of cheap and/or inept ownership. Watching Jerry Reinsdorf’s self-indulgent clown show that is the White Sox is bad enough. Earlier this year Hoyer gave Cubs fans hope that the Ricketts family would open up their check book and act like the Cubs are a big boy franchise. To renege on that won’t play well.
No, Theo Epstein didn’t make all the right moves.
Epstein left a mess behind him. Pre-2016 Epstein was on a roll. Post 2016 his work was poor. He held on to the core of 2016 team too long. Hoyer is taking heat from some fans for trading off the core of that team, but it needed to be done.
I’m not thrilled about letting Schwarber go for nothing, but on balance Hoyer has gotten a pretty good return on under-performing players.
