At his end-of-the-year press conference back in October, Cubs president Jed Hoyer took accountability for his biggest failure of the 2024 season and now he’s trying to avoid repeating it again this offseason. At least that’s according to MLB Network’s Jon Morosi, who said on Monday that the Cubs are one of the most active teams in baseball in trying to acquire upgrades for the bullpen.
Makes sense. The Cubs finished 83-79 for the second consecutive year and in Craig Counsell’s first season managing in Chicago he saw his relievers blow 26 saves. While the bullpen eventually became stabilized, the Cubs had 16 blown saves through their first 73 games of the season. At that point the Cubs were 34-39, a deficit they would never recover from in the standings.
Hoyer looked back at the bullpen he put together to begin the 2024 season and accepted the blame for not doing enough to prepare for the eventual shortcomings.
Via 670 The Score.
“Being self-critical, I feel like that’s something I didn’t do a good job of last offseason,” Hoyer said. “When I look at our bullpen, I’m really proud of the work our whole staff did during the season. Talking about Carter (Hawkins) and Jared (Banner) and everyone in pro scouting did a really good job, whether that was Tyson Miller, Jorge Lopez, Nate Pearson, player development bringing up guys like Porter Hodge and Luke Little. I thought that in-season, we did a really good job of that. But when Adbert (Alzolay) struggled early, when Neris struggled early, when Julian (Merryweather) got hurt, we didn’t have the depth at that point that we needed, and that’s something we’ll really look to improve going forward, because I feel like that’s something that hurt us early. We were able to improve it.”
“At a critical moment 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.”
Fast forward to the offseason and the Cubs have traded for reliever Eli Morgan, a reliable middle relief option who is under team control for three years. The team has also done their usual offseason under the radar acquisitions, claiming lefty Rob Zastryzny and signing a few more relievers to minor league deals.
However, it seems as though the Cubs do have their eyes on a bigger move for the bullpen.
Hearing that Cubs are one of the most active teams in the industry on bullpen arms. Good names available, via trade and free agency. @WatchMarquee @670TheScore
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) December 2, 2024
I haven’t really thought about the trade market for another impact reliever and I’m not sure that’s the route the Cubs will explore either. Still think they’ll make a big trade, but I think it’s more likely to be for a starting pitcher than bullpen arm, especially after reportedly signing Matthew Boyd.
However, I just don’t see the Cubs, under Hoyer’s direction, going all out for a guy like Tanner Scott or Jeff Hoffman, two of the top free agent relievers this offseason. Those two are expected to command a contract of four years at $11-$14 million AAV.
But maybe this thought within the baseball industry means that the Cubs are ready to buy on shorter deals for Jordan Romano, Kyle Finnegan or José Leclerc, who have all had recent success as closers, but obviously come with some warts.
Whatever the move is, Hoyer better get it right because every move that doesn’t work out will get him closer to being out of a job.
