The shocking facts about the Cubs and Jed Hoyer prior to the MLB Trade Deadline
This Jed Hoyer take just isn’t true.
The Major League Baseball Trade Deadline season is here, and while the Cubs may claim to be undecided regarding their strategy at the deadline, it seems clear that the team will be sellers at the end of the month.
What has become a major concern for the Cubs moving forward is that Jed Hoyer is patient to a fault. Truth be told, Hoyer could have avoided the Cubs being sellers had he made a move in the early weeks of June to either stabilize the lineup or the bullpen. Instead, Hoyer was waiting for data that exists in his head and not within the disappointment up-and-down the Cubs’ roster.
Selling may not have been what Hoyer predicted the team would be doing at the deadline when the season started but selling is the solution that lies in front of Cubs. It is a solution in the sense that the Cubs have seen enough results, not hypotheticals, to prove that their believed core is not going to be the core that brings a return to post-season expectations.
The Cubs will need to be creative with the selling trades that they make this month with the goal being that the team should be looking for young talent that is already at the Major League level or prospects who are knocking on the door.
Where the conundrum lies for the Cubs is that the regressionn of their roster likely has capped the value on the trade chips they have. Short of moving Justin Steele, the Cubs may not find the highly-touted prospects that they did in 2021.
Essentially, the Cubs are looking for Michael Busch types. Busch, a former top prospect in baseball, saw his prospect shine diminish after some struggles with the Los Angeles Dodgers last season and was blocked from having consistent playing time at the Major League level. Now, Busch is thriving in his rookie season with the Cubs and the case could be made that he should be a National League All-Star.
The Busch trade is why Cubs fans should not be afraid of the position that Hoyer is in as the Cubs get closer to the deadline.
The trust issue with Jed Hoyer is not tied to his trade history.
There are plenty of reasons why Hoyer should be given a vote of no confidence, but his ability to find value in trades is not one of them. If Hoyer has done anything right in his years running the Cubs’ front office without Theo Epstein, it’s his ability to find value in any trade that he makes. Even his worse trade, the Yu Darvish deal, yielded the Cubs one of their top prospects in Owen Caissie. That doesn’t take the Cubs off the hook for dealing Darvish due to financial reasons, but it should highlight that Hoyer doesn’t often lose a trade.
The Cubs need to be sellers at the MLB Trade Deadline and for this task, Hoyer should be capable of finding the right deals. However, for Hoyer, this is only a small task for a season where he will need to explain why his offseason activity, specifically how he has spent money, is the reason why expectations were not met,
