The Cubs’ search for a new general manager is underway, and the team is aiming to start interviewing candidates by the middle of the month, The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma report. For now, the Cubs are looking at candidates from outside the organization.
The next GM will work under president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, who was himself promoted from the GM role last November when he signed a five-year contract extension. The PoBO/GM structure was in place in Chicago throughout Theo Epstein’s tenure, with Hoyer working as Epstein’s second-in-command. Hoyer said last December that he wanted to wait to hire his general manager, in order to conduct a more proper and in-depth interview process that would be less hampered by the pandemic.
This is an even more necessary step if the next GM did come from another team, and wasn’t already a known quantity to Hoyer. Though obviously Hoyer and Epstein share different personal perspectives despite their long working relationship, adding a general manager who is completely new to Hoyer and the Cubs would help bring new ideas into the mix and perhaps create more of a firm delineation between the Epstein era and Hoyer’s tenure in charge of the front office.
It remains to be seen which names will emerge as part of this search, and which areas of expertise Hoyer will look to draw from in naming his chief lieutenant. For instance, Mooney and Sharma write that Hoyer could target an executive “with a strong background in player development” considering that the Cubs’ trade deadline selloff brought several new young players into the organization.
The new hire will immediately have a lot of their plate, considering the decisions the Cubs face this offseason in the wake of their revamp. With plenty of future payroll space now available, the Cubs could look at a quick return to contention by adding some higher-priced talent this winter. Conversely, the team might prefer to spend another year bolstering their younger core before making a bigger push in the 2022-23 offseason. By that time, the Cubs will also fully know what to expect from the new collective bargaining agreement, as this winter’s hot stove action could well be interrupted or even frozen by CBA negotiations between the league and the players’ union.
Can I apply?
Are you qualified?
The search begins for the next Dumpster Diver
Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy & Jeffrey Dahmer are all unavailable. Too bad because Cubs need a killer GM, who can bury the past & bring up new qualifying youngsters.
I really wish muting worked on the app
please chaim bloom!
Why would Bloom leave his role as top dog with the Red Sox to be the lap dog for Hoyer?
Rick Hahn is a Cubs fan. Just sayin.
Hahn would have no interest in a lateral move reporting to Hoyer. He’ll be a POBO soon enough on the Southside or elsewhere if the team he built has playoff success.
But he’s got Kenny Williams in the path lol, (eye roll).
Kenny Williams has to retire eventually
Hire me!
Just a thought. Why not hire someone who actually played the game? NBA and NFL have GM’s that actually played the game. I don’t believe MLB has any? Maybe I’m wrong, but majority of the GM’s in MLB are guys who never played the game. If a former player is good enough to manage a team, why can’t they build a contending team as well?
Again, I’m probably wrong and missing a few guys who have played the game in some capacity at the big league level, but I can’t think of any at the moment. Meanwhile NFL has Ozzie Newsome. John Lynch just a few who stand out, while NBA has James Jones and previously had Danny Ferry and others.
Chris young jerry dipoto Sam fuld
Oh that’s right. I knew I forgot a few. My bad sorry and ignore.
Chris Young, the tall former pitcher. Current Rangers GM
And Billy Beane. Sorry for the stupid post. I should’ve looked it up.
Ross Atkins (Blue Jays GM), but he only played in the minors (with the Indians).
Derek Jeter ♂️♂️
Yeh Dave Stewart was a disaster
Dave Stewart is available.
Because aside from a couple of Ivy League dorks like Chris Young and Craig Breslow, MLB players are by and large, morons. Sabermetrics and algorithms are how successful teams are formed, and players act like the old folks in the boardroom on that Moneyball scene. Nobody needs to hear old has been players talk about grit and intangibles when we have statistics to measure everything important today.
Keep the players out of the front office. They can wave to the fans, take some pictures, sign some autographs, and given an artificial title, but they do NOT belong in a role running a team.
Exactly. That’s why fans on here say things like collusion during free agency because they don’t understand how to build teams like most of the Ivy league GMs.
I detect a bit of sarcasm, but there’s significant truth in what you’re saying. Being able to play the game and being able to build a successful team are not the same skills.
No, Americans are by and large morons. Baseball is merely reflective of the rest of the population. The difference is that athletes have to focus on something besides academics. Joey Cora came to Vanderbilt as a non English speaking student so he majored in math. Academic All-American. Davey Johnson had a degree in Math. Jay Hook was a physicist who could describe how a curveball works. Beyond academics, there are other forms of intelligence. Yes, there are some pretty sharp guys trotting onto the field, but also some boneheads. But that’s how you find leaders. You don’t pick randomly.
Well said zee. I’d agree that it seems a certain 48% of them are. Lots of them in red hats.
whyhayzee
No, Americans are by and large morons.
================================
My take is that Americans are geniuses with the emotional IQ of a potted plant, and the attention span of a gnat.
My theory is that many of the early settlers were folks that were smarter, more driven, and in particular, a lot of ADHD. Because of a certain amount of selection bias, I don’t think our population will necessarily be similar to the European population.
I just like to see people make broad assumptions of 330 million people…where we have a system that doesn’t always reward intelligence.
Red hat here, loser. Very happy w my life with the keen ability to keep baseball and politics separate
Your pretty fox-y.
Bonehead = Lenny Nails Dykstra
Anthony4412 by announcing you’re a “red hat” you just interjected politics into a baseball column and did not display a “keen ability to keep baseball and politics separate”. Just sayin’.
I think an intriguing move for Jed would be to bring in Raquel Ferreira from the Red Sox. I think they’ve done a fine job of building that team there after a few seasons.
eppler!
Zack Scott of the Mets should be available.
You stole my line 🙂
Levine or Falvey, or both. Please.
Erik Neander from Tampa Bay, He is someone who knows how to draft and to get quality back in trades.
It would be a step down. Right now he serves as the Rays SVP and GM, basically running their baseball operations. Going to the Cubs as a GM reporting into a PoBO is a step back. The Rays wouldn’t even let him interview unless it was for a promotion. If the Cubs are looking at the Rays front office, they’d have target their AGM’s.
Just take any rays Agm, they have a factory there and each of them is an equally good clone (Friedman, bloom, click..)
Decent chance the Cubs will be able to source, identify and hire a qualified GM in short order, while the Mets will still have difficulty finding anyone interested in either their PoBO or GM roles.
So jed hoyer basically gave himself a 5 year extension.
Wrong lexicon from the reporter. “He got himself promoted by Tom Ricketts” should had been a better way to write it.
Epstein come to the Mets, they need someone like you
Nobody wants to touch that organization with a 50 foot pole
Or a 39 1/2 foot pole like the Grinch.
Uh huh, yeah, who would want to run an organization with the best pitcher in baseball and a filthy rich owner…?
Epstein would have fit in well with the Mets organization, but he killed himself in prison.
No, he didn’t.
Allegedly.
Please for the love of God grab somebody from either the rays or the Indians.
I’ve heard Andrew Cuomo is available.
Amiel Sawdaye is a name to watch
Why do they refuse to acknowledge the fact that “President of Baseball Operations” is a fancy way of saying GM?
The GM better not be used to spending $$$ the cheap a Ricketts aren’t going to spend a dime. They proved that after winning a Championship. They are going to let it grow in value and unload. They are a business family only interested in increasing the value and selling.
Cheap owners to be ok paying the luxury tax 2 years in a row, maybe Theo was not so great sustaining success as we all thought. Nah… it has to be the cheap owners. Lol
“the Cubs could look at a quick return to contention”
They’re just not allowed to touch it.
Jeff luhnow knows talent- houston is a
Powerhouse ,as was the cardinals when he was there- just saying cubs would be great for years to
Come