Eleven months after Jed Hoyer was promoted from general manager to Cubs president of baseball operations in the wake of Theo Epstein’s decision to step down, the team has settled on a new general manager. The Cubs announced Friday that they’ve hired Indians assistant general manager Carter Hawkins as the 16th general manager in franchise history. Hoyer will still lead the team’s baseball operations department, but Hawkins will work closely alongside him and serve as the No. 2 executive in the team’s baseball operations hierarchy.
“I am thrilled to bring Carter into our organization,” Hoyer said in today’s press release. “He has earned a fantastic reputation as a leader through hard work, open-mindedness, humility and intelligence. I enjoyed getting to know him throughout the interview process, and it quickly became clear that we share the same passion for team building. I look forward to partnering with him to build the next great Cubs team.”
Though Hawkins is only 37 years old, he already has 14 years of experience working in Cleveland’s front office, working his way up the ranks from an internship to being the team’s player development director in 2014, and then a promotion to assistant GM in 2016. He’ll now join a Cubs organization that has made no secret of its desire to upgrade its farm system and player development operations.
To that end, it perhaps isn’t surprising that both Hawkins and Indians VP of player development James Harris were each on Chicago’s reported short list of GM candidates. Rays VP of player development/international scouting Carlos Rodriguez and Twins assistant general manager Jeremy Zoll were the other names known to be on the Cubs’ radar. Hoyer said last winter that the team would wait to fill the GM role, since the circumstances of the pandemic made a proper interview process more difficult at the time.
Hawkins will now step in as Hoyer’s chief lieutenant as the Cubs begin what could be a fascinating offseason. After a fire sale of veterans at the trade deadline, Chicago now has a younger and less expensive roster, though it isn’t yet known if the Cubs plan to use this available future payroll space to make an immediate splash for 2022. Hoyer has stated that the team intends to “spend money intelligently” this winter, but the Cubs will also be “really active in free agency.”
Measured offseason spending is nothing new for Hawkins, as the Indians have a longstanding model of building through trades and homegrown prospects rather than major free agent signings. Of course, the Cubs have a much larger revenue base than Cleveland, and a drastic cut in spending doesn’t (or shouldn’t) seem feasible considering that the Cubs have been regularly approached or surpassed the $200MM payroll mark in recent years. This isn’t to say that the Cubs will immediately zoom back up to the $200MM threshold this offseason, but the plan seems to be for Hoyer, Hawkins and company to remodel the team’s minor league pipeline to the point that Chicago will have a steady run of young talent ready to augment whatever higher-priced veterans are on hand.
Britt Ghiroli, Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic first broke the news that the Cubs planned to hire Hawkins and were finalizing a contract.
I was hoping for the guy from the Rays.
10 years ago Tuesday, the Cubs hired Theo as #1, and Theo immediately brought Jed from San Diego as #2, who immediately brought AR-45 from San Diego, also.
Here’s hoping Latroy Hawkins, and his Guardian A.I., can bring over a Stud or 2, soon. Cubs shouldn’t spend too much this winter…Those who disagree misremember ‘11-‘14…..
I was hoping for the guy from Walgreens. I don’t know his name either but they charge alot to get in and then have substandard products.
They charge you to enter Walgreens where you live?
Must be from San Francisco
They charge him to get in, but they let him steal anything he wants.
A win—win.
They don’t have Walgreens in SF anymore. The fact that the DA won’t prosecute shoplifting is forcing all the Walgreens to close up shop.
Good thing they have the public urinals or where would people pee?
All these imaginary Walgreens in San Francisco including the one I went to near Union Square to get toothpaste last night.
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I knew I should have laid off the sushi for lunch .
You shoplifted the toothpaste, I assume?
I know a guy who works at Walgreen’s. He’s a tool. I’m glad the Cubs didn’t hire him.
“Dumpster divin’ Carter”!!
Welcome back, Mr. Massengill. BTW, how did your team do???
Dumpster Divin’ ChiSox fan…poor man’s old guy… You should be ashamed to have that name here but, since you are looking for blood..The Chicago White “Flux” with their drunk manager just led the worst division in MLB and there they are, where they belong, at home watching other teams playing. I love it!!!!!
White Sox suck, dumpster fire organization
Steve Cohen curses.
Is this dude any good?
I’m guessing he’s as good as Cashman
Must means he’s pretty good than because cashman won four World Series
Gene Michael is credited with the first 3
He’s never been a GM before so we can only wait and see.
Several years ago he’d be hired as an AGM and few would have paid attention. A PoBO is what a GM used to be.
Won’t matter. Cubs ownership doesn’t plan to spend any money and by naming a new GM Cubs president Jed Hoyer will have someone to blame instead of having the criticism aimed at him
I’m sure you are privy to the budget discussion of the Cubs front office being that you are a hall of famer internet GM.
He comes from an organization notorious for not spending. He’ll be fine.
That’s not how it works. Hoyer didn’t get blamed when Theo was President of Baseball Ops.
Did I miss the press conference or interview from the Tom Ricketts that he does not plan on spending?
Cubs are a large market team with a $75 Million payroll going into this offseason and people really think Tom Ricketts are not going to allow to spend?
Here’s the game I wish people would play. In a situation where a team has a potential wide variation in spending amounts in an off-season, fans ought to jot down on an envelope what they expect the team might spend.
If they’re significantly off, realize your guesses aren’t very accurate, and dial back on how much of an expert you are on things you know nothing about.
My over/under for the Cubs would be about 155.5, and I’d lean under that number. I’m not confident in either projection.
Tim815 why would the simpletons do that. They would be forced to live in reality.
you have no idea what you’ve just done. this type of analytical thinking has never been tried by any commenter on any sports site in the history of the internet. if someone finds an envelope and starts to jot, the universe will fold in on itself and explode. may god have mercy on us all
I am not saying the Cubs will go nuts in the free agency ,and they really should not, they are not in a position to do that, but saying they will be cheap and not spend this offseason is just silly.
I will also take the under on the 155.5 million, adding $80 million to payroll seems steep for a team with a ton of holes and likely not contending in 2022.
I was thinking they would max the spending at 150 million leaving themselves enough room to add in important pieces the next couple of years.
What the Cubs should do for the next couple of years is take on bad contracts with good prospects. They’re not going to compete even if they spend, so spend some to get prospects.
Ricketts isn’t going to spend $s to improve team! All his big $s go to political endeavors!
If you can’t field a competitive team with $200 million then I don’t know what to tell you. I personally feel that this is a very intelligent hire. If he can develop anything close to the pipeline in Cleveland than it will be fascinating to see what can be done when he actually has a budget.
I am excited, Cubs biggest weakness is pitching development and Hawkins appears Hoyer is going to count on to address that weakness going forward.
Cleveland is top notch when it comes to finding pitching and ability to develop them, so big win for the Cubs.
That’s why they hired someone from Cleveland.
This is correct @Daddy, until someone can define the difference between POBO & GM let’s just call him Jed’s whipping boy. Ahahahaha!
Hawkins was assistant to the whipping boy in Cleveland. So it’s a promotion!
Like you wouldn’t want that job….
As long as he can remember Hoyer’s coffee order, he’s got a job for 3-5 years. Then he will be the scapegoat for a failed rebuild, ruining his career. Zero faith in the Cubs (again). Thanks for the one championship in my lifetime though!
This is an A+ hire.
Oh have you worked with him? I recall Mets fans said the same about Jared Porter.
The amount of people that pretend to know if any of these peoples will be good gms is astounding.
luckily the foo fighters have a good back-up drummer
Carter Hawkins sounds like he could be Taylor Hawkins’ brother!
And his sister, Sadie Hawkins.
He’s a youngster. Good for him to move up the ladder so young. Hopefully he can steer the ship this winter.
Never play cards with someone whose nickname is a location and never hire a GM with two last names.
This isn’t going to end well.
Maybe I’m just not thinking very hard, but who exactly are other failed GMs with two last names?
Just a basic life rule…..
By all accounts, the search was an exhaustive, thoughtful one conducted by an intelligent baseball executive in Hoyer. As I know next to nothing about Hawkins, I will give Hoyer the benefit of the doubt.
Hoyer deserves the benefit of the doubt. It wasn’t his fault Ricketts gave the order to trade salary (Darvish) – but when Ricketts did, Jed got a nice return for Yu.
Only mistake was on the part of Ricketts, by not going all the way and trading Rizzo and KB before the season started, they would have received a much better return. Especially since their chances were gone, once Yu was gone.
But then, the fans wouldn’t have shown up as much as they did.
Bryant’s value was higher at the deadline because he had a strong first half after a bad 2020. It’s doubtful they would’ve received more for him before the season.
“Indians assistant”….what the heck is that supposed to mean? I thought we’ve gotten past all of the racist bigoted crap.
Let’s Go Brandon!
Lol.
Now lob hoyer to the curb. No starting pitching development, got nothing for darvish, non tendered schwarber and that turned out no good. 1 ws ring, nothing sustained. Good luck Patrick.
1. “No Starting pitching development” – Yeah it has been terrible under the Theo ERA no doubt, but they got some really nice starting pitcher and starting to turn that around, with guys like Marquez, Jensen, Franklin, Wicks and others, while not great it is a start in the right direction and the purpose of hiring Hawkins is hopefully he can address a big weakness like the starting pitching and it is needed to sustain success long term.
2. “Got nothing for Darvish” Cassie looks great so far, Precidio shows excellent upside as both had excellent first year in the pros and something to get excited about, Hoyer decided to choose 4 lower level guys that have higher ceilings on purpose, nothing wrong with that approach, especially you know a rebuild is happening so getting rid of a 34 year old pitcher who just a year prior was considered a terrible dead weight contract. Darvish is now San Diego’s problem and got at least 2 really good prospects out of it and really impressed this year.
3. Schwarber was a mistake I will give you that, should of kept him.
4. Winning a world series in the past 5 years is a pretty good thing and were competitive after that until this year, I did not know that was a bad thing. They did not sustain the success as hoped but I think a lot of fans from other teams would be been very happy if they had a Cubs type run.
The Cubs are going into this offseason with only a $75 million payroll, Heyward contract falls off in 2 years, their farm is turning the corner and getting deeper and now hired a guy who really addresses Hoyer’s biggest weakness on the pitching side. Sounds like the Cubs are doing the right things and since Hawkins is taking the job he agrees with that too.
Don’t waste your time trying to convince clowns on this board that Cubs have a plan. The reason so many people say Cubs won’t spend, even when Hoyer says they will be active, is that these Cub haters know that if the Cubs indeed spend big…it’s another run of success that their team (Sox) can’t match!
Actually got a great return for Darvish.
For what it’s worth, Hawkins is a Vanderbilt guy (so he’s no dummy) and he’s had a lot to do with Cleveland’s farm system over the years. I’m sorry to see him go, but I have confidence that he’ll be a great hire. Good for the Cubs.
Stupid people come from Vanderbilt too.Remember Rueben Amaro Phillies former GM from Stanford and he sucked as GM
So Hoyer is still the main dude though right?
Hoyer is going to run the business side of the Cubs. I’m sure he will have some input but I’m assuming this will mostly be Hawkins show.
I never understand how these baseball decision-making hierarchies work when one guy is a PoBO and hires a GM too. I can never tell if they work underneath or with the pres.
Wrong. Crane Kenney runs the business side. Hoyer is the president of baseball operations.
Hoyer is Pres of BB Operations & GM reports to him.
They have a business guy already..Crane Kennedy.
Yes. Hoyer is the President of Baseball Operations and is responsible for all player-related baseball activities. Hawkins is his assistant. A PoBO is what we one called a GM. A GM in an organization that has a PoBO, such as the Cubs, is actually what we once viewed as an AGM. It’s basically title inflation. It doesn’t increase or decrease their importance. Some orgs, btw, have never adopted the PoBO title. In those cases, the GM is the equivalent of Hoyer. The AGM of baseball ops is the equivalent of Hawkins. You can pretty much blame Theo for all the title inflation going on. That title was one of his conditions when he joined the Cubs. Since then, many other orgs have inflated the GM title as a recruitment t
…as a recruitment tool.
There’s really only advantage to the title inflation, and it’s why more and more teams are being forced to adopt it. As front offices expand, it allows teams with PoBO’s in place to recruit additional talent by promising a GM title. Fans get excited because they think they’ve hired a GM. The media reports a new GM. You’ve hired an AGM. Hoyer remains the dude.
Great comment, Lorddgg. That was news to me.
Actually, the President of Baseball Operations title may have started with Dave Dombrowski when he was hired in Detroit by Mike Illitch all the way back in 2002. DD as POBO was over GM Randy Smith, who was fired in early 2003. From that point forward, DD ran the show and made ALL of the decisions until he was let go in 2015.
The Rays develop players so the Jays, Red Sox, and Yankees can sign them after they prove themselves. How long do ya really think they can keep Wander Franco? The man will hit every arbitration number and that’s just one Ray.
Anyway, the Cubs are not Tampa they can afford to keep good help. If they rebuild through the minors they will set themselves up for a good decade because they can pay people later. This is why a player development guy for a GM is important for them. Cleveland doesn’t spend a ton of money either and has been decent, so I’m sure Hawkins will hit the ground running. 14 years of on the job training sounds like he’s ready for an opportunity.
” If they rebuild through the minors they will set themselves up for a good decade because they can pay people later.”
You mean like the current core of players they developed? Oh wait, they traded them instead of paying them.
I believe most that were let go will be trending downwards. Out of the players that were on the 2021 team yet couldn’t win before the trade deadline only Bryant seems likely to be able to continue being an impact player for the next five years. I also agree the Schwarber non tender was a mistake as his new organizations were able to correct flaws in his swing/approach at the plate. Also Bryant was not going to re-up with the Cubs anyway. His agent is probably already up Farhans rear.
Bryant is a nice player no where near elite.
Sophie B. Hawkins was busy? Damn…
Sounds like they got someone that’ll work on the cheap. From one penny pinching franchise to another.
I should be hired for this position. I would bring a World Series to Chicago, not him. I deserve all open positions
You don’t deserve a bagel.
This sounds more like a Mutts hire than a Cubs.Sounds like they are writing off the next couple years and went cheap.
Because they hired a guy who is focused on player development especially the Cubs biggest weakness pitching means that the Cubs will be cheap going forward and will be a long rebuild? you got all of that out of this hire?
It can’t be they will spend and make this a short rebuilt (Hoyer already said it will not be like last time) while keeping focus on the long term goal of sustainable success?
A owner who had payrolls has a high as $237 Million will all the sudden now want it below $100 million seems unrealistic.
The owners have alot of debt from the Wrigley refurb and new buildings around the ballpark and low income from the pandemic. They are going to be smart and build there prospects before going all in on free agents.
They want to build something sustainable. expensive free agents are a waist at this point. You fill needs after seeing what your farm can grow.
Some reasonable free agents that are tradable commodities is probably more likely now.
The Indians have a remarkable track record of identifying and developing young pitchers, something the Cubs hadn’t done during the Theo Epstein regime. Hopefully the hiring of Carter Hawkins will help remedy that problem.
This seems like the typical “looking for the next young superstar GM” kind of like the hiring of Ryan Pace. I wish they would have attempted to be a little more diverse in their process. Good luck to him…its nice to take a job that average is good and an occasional lucky season and playoff berth is a success.
He’s an AGM, no matter what his title says.
Those 200MM payrolls the Cubs had was basically old money from 2015-16. Darvish and Kimbrel contracts were only added after money 1st came off the books. There never was a flow of constant money added to the payrolls.
Once Alderson wakes up and hears the news, his senile self will remember LaTroy and think “I can still hire the better Hawkins to be the GM”
You have to think older for Alderson. Maybe checks to see what Andy Hawkins is up to these days
You never know how things will work out, but on paper Hawkins is a great hire. The Cubs are a franchise that hasn’t had much success in targeting and developing young pitchers. At the moment their farm system is bereft of top pitching prospects.
Hawkins comes from the org that has been best at developing young pitching, and was an instrumental part of that development plan. And nobody has a better sense of Clevelands young pitching prospects than Hawkins. Cleveland has more well regarded pitching prospects than it will ever be able to fit onto a MLB roster, even counting on attrition.
My guess is that several lower level Guardian execs will follow Hawkins to Chicago.
As long as Hoyer doesnt go the instant gratification route, exercising a little patience instead, he has the opportunity with Hawkins to build quite a team.
Imagine Clevelands development plan combined with twice the payroll.
Good post!
Totally agree, Hoyer/Hawkins are not going to make the Cubs instant contenders this offseason and 2022 will be more of a transitional year, but does not mean you cannot put a fun entertaining product on the field that the fans can get excited about now and the future.
Lot of people are making fun of the Cubs and saying the Rickets are cheap, but I bet in 2 years the Cubs will be contending and wondering where in the heck did that come from.
Only 16 GMs in over 110 years? I know in the latw-1800s-earky 1900s. They likely didn’t have GMs.
cardinals should have gotten a new gm
Who are the Indians? I thought they were called the Guardians now. Even their sbnation site calls them that.
anyone who knows the address of hoyer’s dry cleaner could do this job. kidding, sort of…
Hoyer puppet- should have been jeff luhnow
Who?
The guy who rebuilt the astros
Oh you mean the guy who rebuilt the Astros by stealing files & intellectual property from the Cardinals!
I want to be on the record as saying Hoyer hired z scapegoat. Not a GM.
In Cleveland some fans are so pleased with the developmental system that their biggest concern this winter is which prospects will be lost in the rule 5 draft. In fact, I would expect one of the first results of this hiring would some minor league prospects being shuffled between Cleveland & Chicago.