Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Jed Hoyer reflects on Cubs' 'imbalanced' 2026 season (Hour 4)

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

In the final hour, Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote listened in to Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer’s season-ending press conference Friday afternoon. After that, they reacted to what they heard from Hoyer.

This hour is being brought to you by Vasectomy Clinics of Chicago. Hello again, everybody. Hi. Welcome me back into. Hi. You mean me? How are you? You and everybody, all the everybody's that are listening right now to Rahimi and Grotie on 104.3, The Score,

thank you so much for doing that. You are listening to a four-seasons, heating, air-conditioning, plumbing, sewer, and electric football Friday, presented by your local. for dealers and by Advent as well. Layla and I are standing by, you can say, because we've got one eye on our super secret monitors here in the score studios on a press conference, which is about to go down with the Cubs president of baseball operations, Jed Hoyer, and we were to bring that to you live once it begins.

It will be brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers, audio provided by the Marquis Sports Network. Yeah, I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say. I just don't know how many. The problem is he can't talk about personnel that we would like to know about their futures because, well, you can't do that right now. And then there's that whole CBA issue. So I want to hear what he has to say about just how they were able to piece this together.

Was the wild card enough, given all the injuries you had on this team? Based on my reactions over the past two games I saw by his team, I would say no personally, but I'm not the jet. general manager. So I'm very curious to hear what we're going to in this upcoming hour. We see some familiar faces. Saw Ryan McGuffie talking to Gordon Whitmire. How about that? Did you see Gordon? I did. Yep, both those guys right in the front row of the press conference. But yeah, we'll be very interested to hear what if Jed Hoyer has an opening statement, if he kind of tries to give the season ending conclusion or if it's just one of those.

All right, guys, what do you got? What do you want to talk about? But we got to know about like how he felt watching the ending of this, man. Because we've had like a lot of the, like back when Theo was here and Jed to a similar degree, like they would go on for a long time these press conferences. Oh, I mean, that's the famous press conference where Theo said after what the 2018 season, the offense broke. And it stayed with us for the rest of our lives.

It did. Yeah, that's when everybody had to go. Now we look at Jed Hoyer sitting down in his seat. Let's go to Jed Hoyer at Wrigley Field. Brendan and Freddie are on either side, so just raise our hand and we'll get you a mic. And we'll go from there. Megan, if you want the first one, you can go right here. Great. Great. Jennifer, obviously a team with World Series goals. Just how do you reconcile regular season success and then obviously getting swept in the Wild Card Series? Yeah, I think it's disappointment. I think that we're doing exit meetings today,

seeing about the players, saying about our coaches. And I think that's really the sentiment that I have is just how disappointing it is. The season was unlike any season I've been through in 25 years. There was a number of times. I think things felt incredibly dire during the season. I think we had a mid-April stretch where I feel like every relief was hurt. We had a late June stretch where we were scrambling to fill out a rotation in any way.

We survived those things incredibly well, I thought. We also had periods of the year, long periods, where I thought we looked like maybe the best human baseball and we look like a fantastic team for long stretches. I think the fans kind of resonated with that. And so we leaned into this team because of those stretches and because we survive those, we survived the downstretched. We had these exceptional stretches. We leaned into it. And ultimately, as we sit here today, you know, it feels like we let something slip away. And I think that's probably the hardest thing. You know, I think these fans deserve home play. off games. We let home field slip away by playing poorly in September, especially the last week.

And then, you know, we let a chance to go deep in the playoffs and really get this team playing in the postseason. We let that slip away by playing poorly in San Diego. So I think that's sort of the emotion or sentiment I have, as I see here today, is just it feels like we let an opportunity slip away that we won't get back. We have to work really hard to get back to that place. Obviously, I think losses like this are really motivating, but in the moment right now, you know, I feel for the fans who supported this team so much

because, you know, I feel like they deserve the long run this year and we let us slip away. Go over here to Bruce on the lobby. Chad, a couple of weeks ago you talked about, we asked about pitching. He said, well, we may have to reevalued. way what type of pitching, what type of pitchers we look for. Did you even mean as far as what you teach and what you have in your lab? Can you elaborate a little bit on that?

Yeah, I mean, I think we had a pretty imbalanced season in a lot of ways. Our position playing group, I think was the best in baseball. We did the best offense. We had really balanced offense in a lot of ways. We didn't strike out a lot. We had a homers, we walked, we played fantastic defense. From a pitching standpoint this year, it was sort of struggle from the get-go. Some of that was based on injuries to some guys we were really counting on, but some of it was, you know, based on poor performance, you know, some poor acquisition. And so I think that's something that we have to look at. You know, right now, I feel like, yeah, we are a bit imbalanced and how do we balance that out?

I don't think it's one thing. I think it's having the humility to look at every aspect of the chain, you know, from scouting, player development, major league development, major league acquisitions, all those things. Ultimately, that's my responsibility. But, you know, I feel like we're doing a lot of things really well on the position playing group, with the hitting group. Obviously our defense, you know, really helps our run prevention. I mean, I think for all of our struggles this year, I think we're 12th in the league and runs

allowed. But we're leaning on our defense, you know, too heavily. And I think overall, the overall quality of the pitching has to improve. And I think that, like I said, that that's really the thing that when I think about our offseason, when I think about seasons to come, that has to be the goal is to get our pitching infrastructure and and pitching quality to the level of our position player group. Jesse. Jed, you could probably draw a straight line from your two playoff exits to, you know, not winning the division and not having the buy home field for much longer than one series.

So, and since hiring Craig, Milwaukee's only widen the gap. What is it that they're doing, and, you know, maybe even along the lines of pitching in particular, but what is it that they're doing that is sort of overworked? overwhelming you guys. Yeah, well, I mean, they've had the best record in baseball the last two years. They've had an exceptional two seasons, and there's no denying that. And I think both having them in our division, having the best record in baseball, and I think that being in the National League, I mean, it's a, you know, the standard has to be exceptionally high. I think the area that, you know, from a major league standpoint, you know, their pitching has been exceptionally good. And I think

Going back to Bruce's question, I think that's the area that we have to double down and really focus on. Obviously, like I said, I think that the position playing group this year was exceptional. And I think that that's the biggest area that we have to focus on. Why, you know, I just said, I think that the focus has to be on all areas. I think that, you know, trying to pinpoint any one area. I don't think that's what it is. I think that would be oversimplifying a really complicated thing. But I think we have to be willing to look at all aspects of our pitching operation to figure out,

like, how do we get the pitching part to the level where our position playing group is, is not there right now. Is Otto? Jake, this is at least the second year in a row where we're talking about pitching again. Does the philosophy need to change as far as what you're willing to spend on swing and miss? You just talked about you can't rely on your defense as much. Swing and miss costs money, a lot of money. Do you just need to be more aggressive in that area? I think a willingness to look at all those things,

I think that whether it's swing and miss, whether it's, you know, I think we gave up far too many home runs this year, and whether that's a stuff issue, a fly ball tendency issue, like all those things, I think are fair things to look at. I think I said hundreds of times during the course of the year. Like, you know, we can't catch homers. You know, like any ball in play, I think we have the best chance in baseball to make that play. And as I said before, as a result, our run is in a decent place.

But we gave up so many homers that cost us big. And I think, you know, our home run rate, I think, was the second worst in baseball. And I do think that's something we have to look at. And again, exactly what's causing that. Is it stuff related? Is it style related? is it, you know, is it anything we're doing from infrastructure standpoint? Because I do think that is something that we struggle with.

We struggle with the homers. And when we have really good defense, that's something that we want the ball in play. And it wasn't in play enough this year. Patrick. Chad, just one more on pitching. This seems to be kind of a parallel to when you guys won in that previous era of having a great position playing group, really from top to bottom in your organization, kind of squeezing out results, pitching-wise, at the major league level.

I guess broadly, why is pitching development so hard? Yeah, I don't think that's an unfair thing to say. I think that I think it is similar in a lot of ways. One of the things I do think for our season that it's frustrating personally was that I think about the guys that were hurt this year than this time, It's Kate Horton, you know, a homegrown guy that, you know, kind of drafted and developed Justin Steele, obviously, missed time. You know, Ben, we traded for it when he was a young pitcher.

And so, yeah, we struggled to keep some of those guys healthy that I think have swinging missed off that, you know, that have the potential to really improve our pitching group. But, yeah, I think that over the stretch, I think we've absolutely done a better job developing, hitting, developing position players than pitch. pitchers and yeah we needed to spend a lot of time thinking about why and how we can how we can level up on that because it has we've had different stretches where I think that we've we've gotten better at it but right now the gap has widened a bit and we need to we need to address it top meeting right here jett you just mentioned three guys that you know are going to be part of your

future how can you rely on those guys how much can you rely on those guys knowing that they're coming off injuries moving into next season versus trying to kind of fortify around that? Yeah, I think it's a, it does present a bit of a team building challenge. All three of those guys are really talented. We'll have medical meetings, you know, this week, but exactly how much we can, how many innings we can rely on, how much we have to factor that into our team building is very real. So yes, I think all three guys have a real chance to impact us next year. But how much is a real question? And I think we have to kind of build accordingly. As you're looking at every part of the chain of pitching, as you said you're going to do,

how much will you be looking at the staff? Do you think the staff is nimble enough to be part of this change, or do you anticipate changes on that front as well? Yeah. I'm not going to talk about staffing in particular. Right now, we haven't had a chance to really sit down and meet since the season ended. but yeah, I think that thinking about messaging,

thinking about the different areas we focus on, I think all of those are fair questions, and we have to address those things, you know, but I'm not going to comment on staffing at this point. This Cubs press conference you're hearing on 104 3 The Score with President of Baseball Operations, Jed Hoyer is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers.

Capital and cash since you've been in charge, how big a failure is. Is this team compared to previous years where you felt short? Yeah, I think we put resources into this team because we believe in this team. I mean, as simple as that. You know, there were, like I said before, I think there were long stretches where, you know, we looked like we could be a dominant team. And, you know, as a result, we, you know, I give the Ricketts family a lot of credit.

You know, Tom, we pushed, you know. in part because of the injuries we had during the year, we had to take on a lot of payroll to survive and take on those guys. And the family was incredibly willing to do that, you know, traded prospects away, you know, to supplement this group at the deadline. And we did that because we believed in it. We believed in this group.

I think we had the best player in baseball. We had an exceptional position playing group. And so we believed in this group and we fell short and we let that opportunity to slip away. And I think that's the part that it will nod us for a long time. Chad, you talk about just like the defense and the pitching group as a whole, but Edward Cabrero is one of the biggest moves that you guys made. What can you kind of point to at this point in the year about why it didn't work with him

this season, maybe even apart from health? Yeah, I think those things are interconnected, but yeah, we struggle with Edward. I think Edward has had a lot of success in the big leagues. He's a really good big league pitcher. You know, I think we have to think a lot about what things contributed to him struggling. And we have to look at ourselves and look at what do we not do to get the most out of him. He did struggle a lot with these blister issues and how much that impacted, you know,

these different spin pitches is unclear. But he's super talented. He has a swing and miss stuff that we're looking for. We didn't get the most out of him. And that's something as an organization we have to own that I have to own. And we need to really focus on that. He has a lot of talent. He really cares, and we just have to get more out of him.

You obviously gave up a lot in the Clay Holmes deal, and he seemed like a guy if he came back feeling good after the flag fracture. Like, this is a game one playoff starter. Just what do you make of how his season with you guys played out, especially at the end? And, you know, I think it was maybe a little surprising. He didn't end up, you know, factoring in and all in the wild card. Like, was he healthy?

Can you just give us an overview on just what you saw from homes? Yeah. I mean, I think in so many ways, then Clay fits our team really well. You know, he puts the ball on the ground. Even with us, I think it was like high 60s ground ball percentage. We convert the most ground balls into out. We thought it was a perfect fit. He had some really good starts in August.

He had a nice run in August for a while, and he sort of tailed off. And like how much of that was because he came back from injury, you know, how much was that was just the length of the season. and obviously wasn't pitching his best baseball towards the end. And I think that's not just with Clay. I think that's one of the biggest challenges in these jobs is getting everything synced upright to go into the postseason.

Obviously, Clay wasn't throwing his best going in. Gossman got hurt at a random play at third base. Certainly those are two guys who were counting on to get out, especially against a very right-handed lineup in San Diego, not having those guys kind of off. optimized, certainly hurt us. But that's the challenge. You're not always going to go in in perfect health or perfectly optimized. And this year we didn't and it hurt us. Bruce, we're here in the last. Chad, the convoluted way people will have to look at the postseason here as far as adding to their team next year.

How do you as an organization look at, you have upwards of 10 guys that would be four? free agents, yet you don't know what the structure is going to be of the CBA to be able to pay that type of money. So how are, how do you feel, do you feel caught in the middle of that, knowing that you have a month to talk to your own free agents before anyone else can? Yeah, I think with all the free agents, and we have a lot of good players that are, that are free agents. I think with, we're not going to be able to bring back all of them. I think that that that's clear. Like we're not going to be able to bring back every player.

We're certainly going to talk to a lot of them because I think there are a lot of good players. We fit well with them. I don't know where that's going to go. But I can assure everyone there'll be a lot of conversations between the guys that are free agents and the Cubs between now and, you know, December 1st and then obviously potentially afterwards.

But yeah, we can't retain everyone. The team's going to look and feel different next year. I think that in a lot of ways that that's a good thing. But I do want to emphasize that we do have a lot of good players that are going to be free agents and we'll be in touch. Do you have a firm idea about what the CDA brings to you guys and being able to do something before? I don't think anyone really has a firm grasp on that. I think we'll make the best decisions with the information that we have at the time. some of those may come before the December 1st and some may come after,

but I don't think anyone at this point has a firm grasp on that. I think if they say they are, they're probably incorrect. I think that we're all going to have to make certain assumptions. Just a quick follow-up to that and another question. So do you operate as if the rules are going to be the same until they're not when it comes to the CBA? I wouldn't say it like that. I think that, you know, if there are contracts that will make sense, no matter the setup, then I think you make those deals.

And I think that there are certainly going to be contracts that are going to make sense regardless of the structure. And I think that, I think that knowing what's going to, what is going to be after, I think that's kind of what I was saying. I think you're making a lot of assumptions. But certainly there are deals, contracts, players that you would retain. regardless of what that structure was. In particular to Ian Hap, maybe Suzuki as well, just because they've been here a long time,

especially HAP. Usually you don't forecast things, but is that door been closed, have you guys talked, or is everything still on the table? No, everything's on the table. You know, I think Ian and I'll probably sit down here the next couple weeks once everything settles

and this kind of get together. I mean, I think with Ian in particular, there is a guy redrafted in 2015, that homegrown player who's just truly embraced what it is to be a cub in a really special way. I think the stuff he does with the guys in left field is amazing. You know, for me personally, like watching his maturation, you know, has been really fun. I think we had our run-ins early on in his career, and we've grown to have a really great relationship. And I probably respect the way he plays baseball

and thinks about baseball as much as anyone I've been around. And in terms of his process is so good, his way of thinking about his own results is so mature. And the way he goes about getting ready to play, I mean, you see him doing his eye exercises every single day. You see him juggling in his locker every day. Like every single day he came in here to try to win a game to prepare himself. And I think he was a model for a lot of the young players.

So I have nothing but great thoughts and feelings by Ian, and we'll sit down the next couple weeks. Jed, you alluded to some of the acquisition issues that you'll evaluate. But given the sizable resource advantage you had, particularly in the division, and how much of this falls on you, what happened this year falling short. And then kind of related to that, if you were the owner of this team,

given those resource advantages, would you consider making front office changes with the people that built that team? Yeah, and I think we do have, I think in our division, I think we do have an advantage, I think in the National League. I think it's incredibly competitive financially.

You know, and we're competing in a really hard league to make the postseason. Some really good teams. Some teams that invested heavily didn't make the postseason. So I think the division, that's a fair comment. I think in the National League, I think that that's a real challenge. I think the expectations have been raised here. And I'm actually really proud of that in a lot of ways. You know, I feel like when we got here, it was, you know, making the postseason was really celebrated.

making it twice in a row just didn't happen. And so I'm proud of the fact that over 15 years, we've changed the entire expectations of what it is to be with the Cubs. I think that we should always be thinking about changes and improvements. I think for me personally, I have to be better next year than I was this year. I think we have to look at that every single year. But in terms of where we are as an organization, I'm really proud of it. And I think that I guess I'm really proud of the fact that we've changed the expectations.

Asian and Cubs fans over the last 15 years. I think that's something that says a lot about the work we've done. You're listening to the Jed Hoyer season ending press conference brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers on 104-3 The Score. Is the focus going to be as far as your resources, prospect capital money, is that going to be on pitching or can you invest a little bit to kind of make sure that the offense at least stays close to this level? Yeah, I mean, I think it's safe to say that the biggest part of our focus going into the offseason is going to be on pitching, whether that's 100-0 or what ratio that's going to be, I think, is not to be determined yet, but certainly the great majority of our focus is going to be on pitching acquisition going in. I think we have a really good core position player-wise. We have really good prospects, you know, kind of close to ready. I think we're in a very good, remarkably healthy position on the position player side, and I think that we have to focus our resources and energy on the pitching side predominantly. Pete obviously had an incredible MVP season.

When you see someone that young put together that complete of an offensive season after what you've seen the last couple years, how does that at all change the calculus of how you view the position player group when you have a player of that caliber. Yeah. I mean, what he did was incredible. I mean, I think I said before, like the best position player season I've ever seen personally.

I mean, he's going to the MVP. I'll win the Hank Aaron Award. I win the platinum glove. Like, to do all those things in one season is incredible. And we're just lucky to have them. We're lucky to watch him play every day. Yeah, I mean, I think that the focus will be on being 40-40 in those things.

The thing that gives me so much comfort is I know offense can go up and down at times, but what we have defensively in him is so terrific. The up-the-middle defense that we have is really kind of the backbone of this team, and he's the biggest part of that. He does give a level of stability and comfort knowing that I know he's going to produce offensively, I don't know, like 45 homers and 41 stone bases is a challenge, but to do every single year. But the standard he set defensively is really incredible and that allows us to build the kind of team we want to build around defense. As you move forward with your plans to figure out what

to do in the corner outfield spots, how big a part can some of the guys that played reserve roles this year like Matt Shaw or Pedro Ramirez even kind of factor into that whole calculus. Yeah. We had really good versatility this year. There was not a ton of time. We had overlap between Matt and Pedro because of some of Matt's injuries. But I thought a year ago, our bench probably wasn't deep enough. I thought this year we actually had a really deep bench. Conforto did a fantastic job for us. The catching tandem was solid. And then obviously having Pedro and Matt super versatile, both really good players. and we can ask more of them.

I think going forward, we didn't have to this year, given the nature of our corner outfield, but I think they both can certainly do that, and I think we'll lean on both those guys more heavily going forward. We know your philosophy on spending bullpen arms, but how did this year kind of further inform how you will likely approach that market, just everything that you went through on the...

relief front season? I think on the relief front, honestly, like, you know, how we spent, probably not my focus. I did a poor job in the bullpen this year, like full stop. You know, the guys we acquired this winter didn't produce nearly as well

as they did a year ago. You know, I thought last year, I was really, really proud of our bullpen in 2025. And it was a huge part of our, of our success last year. You know, we sort of built a bullpen with the same philosophy or the same thoughts of mind, and we didn't get it right.

And that's something that we've spent a lot of time talking about already, and we'll continue to talk about. So I take responsibility for that and something that we'll look to improve on this offseason because it didn't work out as well as it did in 25 this last year. Good, Bruce. Craig, a lot of people think that Craig Counsel did a fantastic job of handling the bullpen and getting what he could out of it.

Other people are disappointed. What's your take on it? What's the thoughts about what type of you Craig had and what you expect? I think Craig's a, I think he had a great year. I think he's an incredible manager. Players love playing for him. You know, we're incredibly well prepared. I think that I can't imagine a more prepared group of players.

And I think that Craig sets a standard for that. And I think in game, he's a really good manager in game. He handles a bullpen really well. There was a lot of stretches this year where we were super banged up and undermanned. And I thought he kind of willed us through some games by this managing the group that he had really well. So I thought in a lot of ways he had a really good year. There's a lot of challenges that were associated with, especially on the pitching side. We just had so many injuries or constantly in flux.

And to be able to handle that and get the most out of those guys, it takes a steady hand to do that. And I thought he did a great job of that. You said you're going to do a lot of self-reflection and look internally. If you were Tom Ricketts and you were having a meeting with Jed Hoyer, what would you ask you? I think I'd probably ask a lot of the same questions that we've answered so far today. You know, I think that there's a lot of exceptional things that happened this year. I think when you look at a team that has the best offense in baseball and the best defense in the last 15 years, I think that there's a lot of good things going on.

But, you know, we had a lot of injuries and we had a pitching staff that, you know, wasn't nearly as good as the offensive side. And I think that's what I would focus on. Jordan. You had a lot of expectations and things that you thought about Alex Bregman going into this year now that you've gone through a full season with him. What he'd just say about kind of the ups and downs that he went through, how you saw him navigate those,

and then the way he fought to come back at the end of the year. Yeah, I mean, a couple of thoughts on that. I think that in a lot of ways, Alex's season was a good reminder. For me, how long the season is. He struggled for a long time, you know, and fans were all over them. I think it was really difficult for him and to be able to keep working,

keep fighting through it. It's a testament to a pretty tough person, you know, that to sort of fail in your first, you know, a few months in a new city, you know, he knew and knows the expectations that are put on him, and he has kept working and kept working. And like I said, it's a good lesson, good reminder for all of this.

It's a long season. And, you know, a player of that quality, you know, he's going to find a way to get it done. And his second half was remarkable. And you look up at the end of the season. And he was a top 10 player in baseball, you know, by war. I'm assuming he's going to win a gold glove this year. And a lot of that was through his work he did on defense. And, you know, candidly, I think we've.

felt his absence the last week. You know, I think that, you know, one of the things that this gnaws at me is the fact that we, we had home field and we kind of gave it up in the last week, and I do think we missed him in the last week. We sputtered on offense, and I think we, I think that his presence,

I think was certainly, his presence was felt, and when we lost him at the end, I think it made a big difference. But great player, great teammate. comes in here to win every single day. And, yeah, I mean, I think that when you look at the totality of the season, I don't think we could ask for more in the first year of a big contract. Chad, I want to focus on the ending to the season.

I mean, I hear you praise Craig, the camaraderie, Bregman, the glue that he brings, and, yeah, you missed him for a few games. But in the most important moments in September, and certainly the home series against the Marlins, the double-hug against the Red Sox. Team didn't come through from 30,000 feet. What were you seeing again, you know, praising a team for five months, but then when they needed it the most, it wasn't there.

Yeah, we didn't hit. I mean, I think it's as simple as that. You know, I think that our offense was, you know, really good for most of the summer. We had a bad stretch in May for a while, but otherwise the offense was really good. And we didn't score. I think we scored, you know, two runs in each of the Marlins game.

We scored three in the first Red Sox game, got shut out in the second game, scored a little bit in the game that didn't matter at the drop, and then, you know, scored a one run in a playoff series. So, I mean, really, we just didn't score. And, you know, certainly not through lack of effort, lack of caring, you know, lack of preparation. I think, you know, to a man, I think the guys have sort of come in to the exit meetings and, you know, letting home field advantage slip away. They think they knew how much it meant to last year. series against the Padres and they saw how much it meant to this year's series. So it certainly wasn't through a lack of awareness of how important that was. We just didn't hit. And baseball, it's an empty answer, but at the end of the day, you know, like I said, it's not through lack of caring. It's not through lack of talent. We scored the most runs in baseball as here.

But, you know, some of those hitting environments were not easy. I think when it was blown in for a lot of those games, but regardless, we just, we didn't get it done and like I said we let that opportunity to slip away. You are listening to 104-3 The Score, this Cubs Press Conference with the president of baseball operations. Jed Hoyer is being brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. Did that buzzer-beater deal with Stroman, you were talking to say all the up to the end? Are you still kind of willing or able to do stuff like that, especially before the lockout, especially considering the holes on the pitching staff, the kind of relative weakness of this free agent class, like, are you still open to doing

those deals in November? Yeah. Sorry to interrupt you. Yeah, I think that, I think that period is going to be active. And I think that there will, like, if deals make sense, you know, kind of, like I said, before, regardless of the structure, I think they're going to get done. You know, last time there was sort of a sprint in the moment. before and then there was a sprint in the moments after and you know that may be a blueprint for how

this this goes again you know we're going to have a likely a period an empty period in there but yeah I think that if I think there will be activity in November for sure in terms of you have very clean books that's a great thing to have there's not bad contracts unlike some of your counterparts however you've got to rebuild your entire pitching staff your corner out field is How realistic is it with the compressed time you're going to have in November and then a sprint that you can get all that addressed on a team that has expectations of contending? I don't think the timing will impact it. I think that, yeah, we're going to have to have a good offseason. We're going to have to be creative.

We're going to have to fill a number of holes. I don't think a timing affects that. I think that can get done. I just think we have to make good decisions and we have to do. to find deals that make sense for both sides. This is a little similar to it, Jesse S. But the playoffs are a different beast. Craig talks about that a lot.

A two-game wild card is a small statistical sample, but are there any big picture lessons you take from those two games to apply going forward, whether it's through roster construction strategy, anything like that? I think my biggest takeaway is playing at home helps. I think that in the way the system is set up, you don't get a chance to come back and play games.

And so when you lose home field, you lose all the home games in that series. I think that makes it really difficult. You know, we have a real home field advantage here. They have a real home field advantage in San Diego. I think that that really hurt us. you know it's hard to it's hard to game i don't i don't believe two games is a great way to think about your roster i don't but i do think the san diego um the way they're built i do think that

they have an exceptional bullpen that that is the absolute strength of their team you know and so a year ago we we got out to leads and we were able to hold on to those leads this year we fell behind in both games and you sort of know going into those games you know going in any game against the Padres regular season or not, you've got to play with a lead and we weren't able to do that. So I do think that that team puts a lot of pressure on you in terms of how you play. Judd, thank you very much for your time. Thank you, guys.

Appreciate it. Thank you. That is the Cubs president of baseball operations. Jed Hoyer right there answering myriad questions, many of them focusing on the pitching, but pretty versatile. We need to take a break right now. When we return, hopefully Lail and I

will have a little bit of time left, just a little bit to react to what we just heard from Jed Hoyer. It is... For a very special guest at two. Yes. Mike Vassel will be joining us at two.

It's the most important transition the score has ever had. Magical. Very magical. It'll be magical. The transition with a guess, that's five different voices. It's a wizard groaning.

It's coming up at 2. It's Rahimi and Grotie on 104 3, 3, The Score. Rahimi and Grody, Midday's Tyndel 2 on Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, the score. I mean, I think we had a pretty imbalanced season in a lot of ways. Our position playing group, I think, was the best in baseball. You know, we had the best offense. We had a really balanced offense in a lot of ways. We did a strike out a lot.

We had homers. We walked. we played fantastic defense from a pitching standpoint this year it was sort of struggle from the get-go Welcome back to Rahimi and Grotie on 104-3, The Score. Hope you enjoyed the Jed Hoyer Press Conference, the Cubs President of Baseball Operations, from whom you just heard right there,

talking for about 40 minutes out at Wrigley Field answering tons of questions from the media. And Lela, I guess, Yes, my theme from this, if I had to use one of his quotes to sum up all of what we just heard, and it is the truth, the overall quality of the pitching has to improve. And that was the theme throughout, if you want to get specific, the swing and miss aspect of it. It was Edward Cabrera who was support, because we talked about that. Like Edward Cabrera was supposed to be the changing of that, right?

Kate Horton at the beginning of the season. We asked Judd last week about Edward Cabrera, and you could tell that he was. was frustrated with his performance too. Absolutely. And then this press conference said he, they have to get more out of him. But what does that really mean? Now, what was surprising was how harshly Jed talked about the pitching when he talked about not just needing to improve, but bringing up infrastructure. I thought that meant coaching staff and possibly other things because you've had some

indictments under pitch lab lately. One of them closes games in Milwaukee, you know, and Trevor McGe. So how are you going to try to make that better? And then him saying that he was bad at the bullpen this year. Yeah, he admitted it. Full stop. I did a poor job on the bullpen this year. Full stop was the quote that I wrote down.

Yeah, no. And he blamed himself for that. He is correct to point out that they did a great job of surviving at certain points in the season when we literally didn't know who the starting pitcher would be because of Horton, because of Steele, because of Ben Brown, because of James and Tyone, because of Matthew Boyd. I mean, I'm just listing pitchers who have been injured this year for the Cubs. But he also said correctly, and there was a time where it felt like the Chicago Cubs were the best team in baseball. But they let it slip away.

They let it slip away and the offense sucked at the end of the season. And he mentioned that too. He said we let this slip away. I didn't hear the totality of the season talk from Jed Hoyer like we had heard before. I heard somebody who knew that they had their chance, and I think a lot of other, I've talked about this with Russ Dorsi last week, a lot of other teams in the National League smell blood in the water. Could this be the year the Dodgers aren't as powerful in the postseason? And you had the chance and unfortunately just like losing home field, which he touched on.

Yeah. You didn't get it done. Yeah. No, you did not. You didn't get it done. I thought it was interesting too that brought up the idea of, I guess a reporter probably the idea of developing

your own pitching, which they have gotten better at. And I'm going all the way back to Theo Epstein because they really didn't even try when Theo Epstein was here. Yeah, they accepted it. I feel like with the other, they're just like, nope, we're going to spend on pitching, we're going to develop pitching. Yeah, right. And it worked and they're probably going to have to, they need an ace. They went out back then. and got John Lester.

They made the trade for Jake Carrietta. Nobody knew that it was going to work out as well as it did. You look at it now, and there's two pictures that they were developing, Kate Horton and Justin Steele. I don't know if I'm leaving anybody out, like starter-wise, but there still hasn't been enough of that. Like maybe it's Jackson Wiggins. Maybe he is somebody that is developing,

and maybe he will become an ace for the Cubs. But they need an ace. That's basically the theme of you and I have said that. that ahead of it, it doesn't matter who starts, because all the Cubs pitchers right now are the same. They're all decent, right? Would that be the word of the Cubs starters, decent number threes? Yes, threes on a playoff team. And he said there's not enough swing or somebody said there's not no swing and miss.

I thought that was Jed. That was. And that's another point to this. Now, he did point out Clay Holmes. I would like that Megan Montemarrow asked him about Clay Holmes because should have. You gave up a lot for him and he didn't even pitch in the postseason. and then Jed talking about how he fit with the team by keeping the ball down. So it sounds like that may be a shift in philosophy.

They may want to get back to more groundball pitchers instead of guys who tunnel with a high fastball because they want their defense to be able to collect that. That was even when they brought him in, I thought that that might have been the case because he was different from the rest of what they had, but still not a swing and miss guy. And they haven't had historically many of those. And think about how long Kyle Hendry, lasted with this ball club and he wasn't that. No, I mean, Lester and Arieta were, but...

Yeah, that's it. Yeah, I mean, that's really about it. I thought some of the questions, too, that were coming in about how much culpability, how much responsibility does Jet Hoyer have and what would you say about you and all of that? And he said he had to be better, but he also did point out at the very beginning that it's on his watch that expectations have been raised by the Cubs to a time when they were just happy to be there in the playoffs and now the expectations from Cubs fans is get there. I take a little exception to that because that is the precedent that you set.

And Cubs fans should be greedy. Cubs fans should expect to not just get to the playoffs, but win in the playoffs. Yeah, you did. You raised the bar. So now you've got to accept it and take responsibility for the bar when the bar goes down. No, I agree with that. And I feel like there were times when the mantra just get into the playoffs was also theirs. since the World Series.

Yeah. So if that's the case, you can't really stand by that anymore. We were kind of talking off the air about our interpretations of Ian Hap. And Jet Hoyer did say, did say everything's still on the table. And then he went on to speak glowingly of him, as he should, because of his embracing Ian Hap as he does every week on our show, embracing of cubsness and the whole thing that comes with it and the early days that were a little fragile like when ianap got sent down he was pissed he was pissed and i think still still has not

gotten over that but i don't know how did you hear that did you hear that haps coming back or do you think that he's not i i kind of it it sounded to me like somebody who wants to bring back but maybe i don't know maybe that was his way of also saying goodbye yeah That's kind of what I felt. I felt like he was giving the proper amount of respect to somebody like Ian Hap, like because of what he's meant. So he's not going to come out and be like, yeah, he's out of here. He's gone.

You just can't do that with a player that's been around this long. I mean, God, he brought Dansby Swanson to tears. He brought PCA to tears. Like, I don't even think I knew how much Ian Hap meant in the clubhouse. No, I think that was a, we know what he means to us on. Tuesdays, you know, but when it came to just hearing those two talk about him, especially Dainsby. Like that was, that was really moving. It wasn't. I, like, again, I know, I know how much, like, the team likes Ian Hap, like,

because why wouldn't you? I didn't realize it was that much, like, to bring a man to, and maybe they know that he's not going to be around, but just speaking about Ian Habb, people get emotional in that clubhouse, which is amazing to me. Yeah, incredibly, it's an incredibly high compliment, no matter how you look at it. It is. It is. No doubt about it. We want to let you know tomorrow from two to three, you can tune in for the Bank of America, Chicago Marathon Preview, hosted by Josh Liss, and featuring race director, Kerry Pankowski, Jenny Spangler, and more. I was a part of the first episode. Nice.

It's tomorrow at two right here on the score. I'll be listening, and you should be listening to what is about to go down next. It's the most important edition of transition that you will. ever here. It is like a lifetime movie starring Valerie Burton Ernie. It is coming up next. We are going to have on.

Not only will Spiegel and Holmes be here like they are for transition. We are expected to be joined by Mike Vassel during the transition. That is next on 104-3 The Score. No, there's nothing like today and there's nothing like tomorrow. Live in the

present.