PHOENIX — It’s been seven years since the Chicago Cubs last made the postseason after playing a full 162-game schedule. In Jed Hoyer’s first four seasons as team president, the club has finished a combined 62 games out of first, never coming closer than nine games from topping their division.
They did just miss the postseason in 2023, but ultimately, the goal of October in a full campaign has yet to be achieved with Hoyer at the helm. The blame doesn’t solely fall at his feet, but in the final year of his contract, the pressure is on his team to make fall baseball a reality once again on the north side of Chicago.
“I think our team is more prepared to do that,” Hoyer said. “You try to be realistic with where you are. There have been years where you knew you have to play exceptionally well to make it. I feel like now we need health and breaks, but we’re a playoff-caliber team. That does put a little more pressure on it.”
After starting the season 0-2, the Cubs took the domestic Opening Day nightcap against the Arizona Diamondbacks, 10-6. They looked much better than they did in Japan. Ian Happ and Miguel Amaya combined for four hits, all for extra bases, and drove in eight runs. The pitchers battled against a lineup that led all of baseball with 886 runs scored last season.
The team was also brilliant on the basepaths, with Matt Shaw scoring from first on a hit twice, and both Pete Crow-Armstrong and Nico Hoerner beating out plays at second on balls hit in the infield. Crow-Armstrong’s play was especially valuable as it kept the fifth inning alive and allowed Amaya to slug a three-run double to extend the lead to four runs.
“The Pete base-running play is the type of thing we talked about a bunch this spring,” manager Craig Counsell said, “and the type of thing we’re capable of executing. In that case, we had the right guy in the right spot. But it’s also the care factor of getting an aggressive secondary lead and thinking, ‘I can beat out a routine groundout to shortstop.’”
Those types of small moments can add up over a season that feels critical for so many reasons. The playoffs are always the goal for MLB teams and this group is eager to get there.
Miguel would like 5 RBI’s pls and thank you. pic.twitter.com/ZhzvDpBl0x
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) March 28, 2025
There’s no “Do it for Jed,” slogan. That would be a bit over the top. But these are players who were brought in or kept around by Hoyer and would love to win to ensure that he’s around beyond this season.
Dansby Swanson, who Hoyer signed to a seven-year, $177-million deal — one of the largest contracts in franchise history — prior to the 2022 season, has grown close to Hoyer in his two-plus years with the team.
“Jed has obviously been awesome for me personally as an executive but also as a friend and someone who cares about my well-being,” Swanson said. “I know he does that for everybody else in this room as well. That’s very special. It’s not a common thing for people to be that way. That’s how he is. I’m very grateful for that.”
Happ was drafted by the Cubs in 2015 when Hoyer was general manager and signed an extension prior to the 2023 season when Hoyer was team president.
“I love Jed,” Happ said. “He’s been awesome to me and a part of building a lot of great teams that I’ve been a part of. We want to win for each other in this room, but I have nothing but respect for him and want to make sure that he stays here.”
Some may balk at Happ’s comments that he’s been a part of a “lot of great teams,” but in his first year with the Cubs they went to the NLCS and the following season they won 95 games. In retrospect, maybe those were the glory years. But the Cubs hope they’re about to begin another extended stretch of winning.
It’s important for the Cubs to avoid long losing stretches this season and poor months, something that sank them last summer. After a hot start, a losing May and June essentially crushed the Cubs postseason chances.
“It’s not necessarily about avoiding lulls,” Swanson said. “It’s about being able to consistently be a good group for the whole year. That, in turn, limits the downtimes. They’re gonna happen, this is a failure-driven game. But at the end of the day, the more we can be consistent and focus on winning, as simple as that sounds, the better the results will be.”
Ultimately, the Cubs just need to win games. It goes beyond Hoyer and a front office that needs to prove they’re truly capable of building a winner. A fan base that went from having very few expectations has had its hopes raised over the last decade. The losing that happened in 2021 and 2022 were supposed to lead to a consistent winner. Patience is beyond wearing thin.
“We want to establish a culture of excellence,” Swanson said. “We want to represent the Cubs the best way we can on and off the field. That comes with winning. We understand if we go out and play well, we have an opportunity to do that.”
(Top photo: Norm Hall / Getty Images)