The new manager spent the last nine seasons with NL Central rivals, the Brewers.
The Cubs will hire former Brewers manager Craig Counsell as their next manager, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported on Monday.
This news was shocking for MLB fans as David Ross was signed through the 2025 season as the team’s manager. Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts even said Ross was the team’s “guy” after the season ended in dramatic fashion with the Cubs just marginally missing the playoffs.
Counsell spent the last nine seasons as the manager of one of the Cubs’ NL Central rivals. During that span, the Brewers posted a 707–625 overall record and made the playoffs five times. This season, Milwaukee lost to the Diamondbacks in the wild card.
The Chicago Cubs are hiring Craig Counsell as their manager, sources tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 6, 2023
A blockbuster move for Chicago, which had David Ross as their manager but will now go with Counsell, who had spent the previous decade with their division rival Milwaukee. @Ken_Rosenthal was on it.
Here are some more details:
The Cubs needed to ask the Brewers permission to speak to Counsell before Nov.1. They did not. So this ALL came together in the last few days. Its likely to be the most expensive managerial hire in MLB history.
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) November 6, 2023
Ross took over as the Cubs manager in 2020 after he retired from the team in 2016, the year the team won the World Series after a 108–year drought. During his four-year span, the Cubs posted a 262–284 record and only made the playoffs in 2020. Chicago was expected to make this year’s postseason up until around the last week of the season.
