Newly-elevated Jed Hoyer's offseason moves might be deliberate as pandemic impacts payrollGetty Images
The length of new Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer's five-year contract "might prove essential to the task of maintaining the team's perennial playoff presence," according to Mark Gonzales of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Hoyer declined to "estimate the Cubs' 2021 payroll," but the pandemic will have an impact on that figure. Hoyer's moves "might be deliberate this winter." Cubs Chair Tom Ricketts said that the tax credits the club will receive from Wrigley Field earning National Historic Landmark status last week "cannot be used toward baseball operations." Meanwhile, an external search to fill Hoyer's former role as GM "will start soon" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 11/24). Hoyer said that there will be a "need for patience in identifying 'the right person at the right time.'" Hoyer: "I want the fresh ideas, and I want to be challenged. I think that that's part of the beauty of going outside the organization. So, I encourage that" (NBCSPORTSCHICAGO.com, 11/23).
RECALIBRATE: In Chicago, Russell Dorsey wonders, "What will happen to the Cubs' core?" The answer to that "likely will come during the next few months, when the Cubs and other teams start to figure out their financial stations for 2021." Hoyer said, "It's gonna probably move a little bit slower than some offseasons, so I think we may try to get a sense of the landscape before we move forward. We're not gonna wait forever, but I do think waiting a little bit and trying to figure out exactly what happens this winter makes a lot of sense" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 11/24).
PARTIAL RENO? Ricketts on if he would support a complete rebuild said, "I would always take Jed's recommendation on what to do, but I don't think anybody's tearing anything down." He added, "With the combination of vaccines and treatments and home testing and a few other ways people can be safer, and spreading people out around the ballpark, I think we'll be able to get people back in the park." Ricketts: "But only time will tell if we'll get enough people in the park to -- if we'll get 10 percent or 20 percent or 30 percent, only time will tell." The Cubs already have "laid off more than 100 employees throughout the organization" and face a winter of cuts "likely to be at least as deep for a payroll that has been among the highest in the game in recent years" (Chicago DAILY HERALD, 11/24).
