I could easily save this for the 5pm Cubs News & Notes blog today but I’d rather give it the full dog and pony show on it’s own because I think it’s that important.
Everything you need to know about the 2025 Cubs from the butcher’s ass:
Jed Hoyer: “I feel like for us, we don’t have a lot of margin for error. We need guys to improve, we need to stay healthy, we need to play clean baseball. I think that the way this team is built — we have a really good defensive team, we should run the bases well — we need to do all those things really well. We don’t have the ability to sort of muddle through and just show up and make the postseason. We have to have a really good season to do that.”
My observations:
- This should be repulsive to any Cubs fans that lived through the Theo era with any amount of consciousness. This far into a new roster with about $300M in just game operations revenue hitting the financial statements, and we don’t have a lot of margin for error. Three straight offseasons to correct and improve the roster via trades and free agency and we still don’t have a lot of margin for error.
- You know what Cubs teams didn’t have a lot of margin for error? The ones with Frank Schwindel and Bryan LaHair and Ronny Cedeno. Those clubs had a small margin for error because they were terrible and the front office was out to lunch. So how is this still possible?
- I agree this roster needs to stay healthy like all rosters. And like all rosters I agree this roster will not be healthy. So can we just go one step further and build great depth so we don’t have to blame injuries like every other sad sack of pussy losers in this game?
- Needing players to improve vs. paying better players is one of the more interesting arguments I’ve seen come from Jed Hoyer. It makes sense but I think it’s better suited for college and the minor leagues where player development is a priority. I think that comes to a drastic halt once you get to the big leagues and that’s because it’s the big leagues. It’s not a development showcase or place to improve. It’s a place to perform and that’s what makes this sentiment frustrating to me as a diehard. Just go build a better roster with better players if you need better results. There’s only so much coaching and scouting can do.
- Our defense is probably in the top 3 in MLB and I think #1 in the National League so absolutely no arguments there
- The base-running needs to be smart, not fast. We have tremendous athletes with shit for brains on the bases. I’m not calling this a strength until I see otherwise.
- Explicitly saying “you need to do all the little things well” is an abject concession that you don’t have enough talent on the roster to be good. So you need to play near-perfect and that’s a ridiculous expectation to open the season. Especially with such sloppy and shoddy play over the last season. There’s no reason to think things just magically improved overnight, so I won’t.
All of this to say that I’m downgrading expectations by two full wins to 88-74. I still think that wins the division but I don’t think it’s dominant or confident. Instead I think it’s exactly what Jed’s trying to avoid: muddling through a weak NL Central and limping into September. That’s the most likely scenario although I think we’re best avoiding it all together.
And this is where I need to draw the line on expectations vs. enjoyment. Probably going to be a recurring theme around the season so let’s not avoid it now: I need to find a way to enjoy 88 wins without having a huge dump in my pants.
Unlikely. But I’m going to try anyways and the rest of you are invited to join me, Jed Hoyer’s comments be damned.