Cubs president Jed Hoyer visits North Side Territory ahead of the trade deadline

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm Sadeve Charma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick, we have a special guest today. It is team president Jed Hoyer. Let's get right to it with Jed. Jed, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate you jumping on the show. Looks like you're at the offices, is that right your.

00:00:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's meeting week, so yeah, we're here a lot fun times.

00:00:36
Speaker 1: We're we're not going to dive into the draft. I think you know what the topic, Djur is. Uh, it's July. Your team is in the thick of it, obviously one of the best records in baseball. Looks like you're headed towards buying this summer, which is exciting to have a clear direction. Uh, can you kind of give us as we had to the All Star break? We know like the draft does kind of slow things down. But where is where? Where do you feel everything is right now as far as the trade market. Do you feel like anything could get done during the All Star break? And where do you kind of see not not only your team but the market in general, and how you expect things to move this this July.

00:01:23
Speaker 2: All right, let me unpack the seven questions you ask you. So I guess to start with so typically, I guess not typically because we've only done this for I guess a handful of years. But there's always a lot of conversations, you know, kind of this week, people will talk about the draft, talk about their teams or whatever, and then it kind of quiets down as we get sort of into the draft, and then really the minute the draft is over, now the trade conversations really pick up. I spent the last couple of days of the of the All Star break last year in Cooper's town with one of my sons, and you know, my my phone is ringing off the hook, and I was like, you know, I thought, maybe we get a couple of days off here after the after the draft, and I just think people now kind of jump right in right into it. So I think it'll it'll become active here for probably after the draft. There's a lot of conversations going on, but feels more exploratory.

00:02:24
Speaker 3: Than about to get things done.

00:02:27
Speaker 2: In general, I guess to sort of educate the listeners, you know, the way.

00:02:32
Speaker 3: The way it usually works is like people are always say they're.

00:02:35
Speaker 2: Willing to move early, but then normally the early price is really exorbitant and therefore you end up kind of moving into closer to the deadline.

00:02:45
Speaker 3: Is usually how it works.

00:02:46
Speaker 2: So my expectation is that the deals will get done in a handful of days before July thirty first, but it doesn't mean you don't try to make deals and try to be active in advance. And then, as for where we are, think that you know, the team has played really well so far, a lot of really great individual performances, and I think as a as a group, it's been really impressive. I think there's obviously areas to add. In any year, I think there's areas to add, you know, trying to create more depth, trying to sort of fire proof your team, so to speak, by insurance on certain areas. But I do think in our situation this year, you know, the position playing group has been really terrific, both offensively and defensively. I think are starting pitching is hung in there well in the absence of steel and assad and then showed it for two months. But certainly that's an area that we'll be in discussions on and then I think like every team, every team needs, you know, additional relievers. I don't think there's a team out there that feels like okay, Bullpens completely said, I think everyone will be in that market.

00:03:51
Speaker 3: So that's really my expectation.

00:03:54
Speaker 2: But yeah, certainly it'll be a very active month, both with the draft and obviously the deadline.

00:04:00
Speaker 4: I mean, Jed, after selling at the twenty twenty one trade deadline, you memorily memorably said no reason to go halfway? Does the same logic sort of apply here in a different way because you've always been someone who you always pick a lane. Yeah, and I was just wondering, how how does that apply here?

00:04:19
Speaker 3: That's a good question.

00:04:20
Speaker 2: It's certainly going to be buyers and we're going to try to improve the team thing. It's hard to say now, I don't know, you know what's going to percent itself. Obviously, you want to do good deals, the you know, deals that you feel like you know makes sense for the organization this year and long term. You never want to take for granted where you are right now. I mean, I think that's ultimately the one thing that we know is where we are. But also you know you can't just you can't buy with with no restrictions and they say we're gonna do whatever, because you know that that can be really damaging. So I think the biggest thing right now is we're of pushing our staff is be creative and come up with a lot of different ideas.

00:04:59
Speaker 3: You know, this is it's gonna be.

00:05:01
Speaker 2: An interesting market. I think it'll sort itself out over the next few weeks. But there's not a ton of obvious sellers right now. That might change, you know, you know, as some teams realize it's not there, the odds aren't great for them, but it may be a year we have to be a little bit more creative because I do think the new playoff system and I do think that the way the American League get set up this year could lead itself to fewer sellers, and therefore maybe you have to be creative and how you put a deal together.

00:05:30
Speaker 1: You're touching on it there, Jed. But there's there's a few teams that feel like they're they're going to wait to see where they where they sit, and they have really interesting players Arizona, Kansas City, Boston even I think any of those teams have players that you guys would likely be interested in. How do you kind of balance the the idea of, Okay, maybe you want to be aggressive and ad, but then also be patient and say, what if these teams start selling and we've made an aggressive move and now we don't have the assets to go get a player that you may seem as see is really desirable.

00:06:06
Speaker 3: That's a great question, and that's what you have to prioritize.

00:06:08
Speaker 2: And I'd say most of the conversations I've had this week with teams have been sort of what you described, where teams acknowledge their position but realize, like, hey, we got I don't know how many games exactly we have left, but we call it twenty games left roughly, maybe a little bit more before the deadline. I'm going to wait and see where we stand in the last couple of days. I think that's a very common refrain right now. You know, there's a very small handful of teams in the obvious selling lane, and then there's a bunch of teams in that lane, and I think that that's going to be what really determines how the deadline feels.

00:06:42
Speaker 3: And so you're totally right, like jumping at a deal early. You know, you may look.

00:06:46
Speaker 2: Back and say, oh, man, if I had known this team was going to end up selling, I would have positioned it differently.

00:06:51
Speaker 3: So I think that's going to be a real balance as we as we go forward. Kratz.

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00:07:10
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00:07:48
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00:07:57
Speaker 4: Jenn I spent a lot of time trying to think of a different Kyle Tucker question because you're so scripted in your no comments, But like, how does he change his calculus at the trade deadline? You obviously want to maximize this year just in case maybe his replacement could be an Eyebell right now, or maybe you have to like budget forty fifty million dollars for him for the next decade annually and you need a lot of young, cheap talent to surround him with, Like how do you it's not about one player at any deadline, but what's kind of the internal debate just around that idea?

00:08:33
Speaker 2: Well, I think that kind of goes back to what I said before, like what we know the most about is where we are right now.

00:08:38
Speaker 3: I think that you know, certainly you're you're always.

00:08:41
Speaker 2: Trying to balance those things, but you know, what's in front of us is really important, and obviously he's had a huge impact.

00:08:47
Speaker 3: On our offense. I think you know he's been terrific. Certainly you know, having him.

00:08:52
Speaker 2: On base all the time, and you know, watching the quality of his bats, and I think has really had a huge impact. And he's just a great all player. I think that's really benefited us in so many ways. And so you know, clearly, you know, this has been a really impressive position playing group so far, and he and he's sort of he's a big part of that, and obviously.

00:09:12
Speaker 1: That's going to factor into our calculusm Jack, You've You've talked to us a lot about how you kind of you look at these moments, these deadline opportunities as moments to you know, actually make a move. Sometimes teams just don't seem as motivated and you kind of enjoy the fact that there's a deadline here. How like how rare and fleeting are these opportunities to improve your team and find motivated teams to work with.

00:09:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was talking to another team president the other day and he sort of said that, like a hey, listen, this is the one time I know you've got you had twenty nine teams that are going to other teams that are going to be, you know, looking to do deals, and you know sometimes you know, other times of the year.

00:09:57
Speaker 3: You know you don't have it, You don't you don't know, you have everyone's attention.

00:10:00
Speaker 2: I guess this is the best way to say it, right, And I think this time of year people get themselves into into deal making mode, and you know, sometimes those are deals that are clearly like, you know, either a rental or a buy.

00:10:11
Speaker 3: Now for this team.

00:10:13
Speaker 2: But like that was kind of what I did last year with Paratus with Morell, was that it felt like a deal. You know, we didn't have very high playoff odds last year at that time because of how we played early the year. We played great the last three months, but ultimately it wasn't enough. But you know, that was sort of a good example of a deal that was it was like, hey, this is an active time. I started talking to Tampa actually right around this time of year, and we ended up doing that deal towards the end, and that was a good example. I don't think for either team that wasn't a typical deadline trade, right, you know, neither team was had very high playoff odds, but it made sense for both sides to do it. So I do think that it's a time for activity, and I think that a lot of teams want to sort of honest say, take advantage of that, but they want to be part of that that action and people get really creative this time of year, and I think that's a great thing.

00:11:05
Speaker 4: Hey jed to what extent does like what could go wrong enter your thought process here? Like you're a pretty optimistic guy, but you're realist because you've been in the game for so long, Like, how does that enter the equation here of like planning for potentially three months.

00:11:25
Speaker 3: After this, no question? I think that, you know, I kind of I said it earlier.

00:11:30
Speaker 2: I think when you think about roster, you know, you think about you got to play you know, you know, two months of baseball after the deadline and you don't have August waiver trades anymore, So you do have to think about, you know, what your roster looks like, what could go wrong.

00:11:46
Speaker 3: I think that's a big part of the job.

00:11:47
Speaker 2: You know, Counsel and I talk about that all the time, that that is a big part of the job, is trying to.

00:11:53
Speaker 3: See around corners and trying to you know, it's.

00:11:57
Speaker 2: Not a great way to go through life thinking about what can go wrong, you know, but at the same time, you have to think about, like, you know, these two injuries. You know, what would we do in this situation because that is the nature of baseball, and it doesn't the best case scenario doesn't often happen. So I do think that's a big part of my job. I think it's big part of Craig's job as well, thinking through, you know, if this goes wrong or that goes wrong, how do we handle it?

00:12:23
Speaker 3: Because that's the job.

00:12:26
Speaker 1: So much of this pitching staff has been built with undervalued players, whether it's pretty much the majority of the bullpen has you know, picked up in various ways, and then they're dominating and then Matthew Boyd's an All Star. I don't think many people expected this type of performance for him, but clearly you guys have some trust in the pitching infrastructure, whether it's Tommy and Casey or the addition of Tyler's ombro or even others behind the scenes. I know you're not going to get into names of players you're pursuing, but are there.

00:13:03
Speaker 3: I guess this is a two part question. Can you do that?

00:13:05
Speaker 1: Can you think of it in the same way, where can you say, like we see something, we like this guy may not have the ra or the results exactly that we want, but we think we can do something. Is that Can you do that mid season as much? Can you have that same thinking and are there profiles or characteristics that you can kind of point to that you say like this is what we're looking for.

00:13:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you can.

00:13:28
Speaker 2: I mean I think that for rental, it maybe a little bit harder than it would be with someone you're going to control. You realize you have you know, a year and a half or two and a half years to make some of those changes and.

00:13:40
Speaker 3: Recoup that value. I do agree with you, like getting.

00:13:42
Speaker 2: A guy for if you're getting a reliever that's going to make fifteen to fifteen to eighteen appearances, somewhat hard sometimes to make significant changes. But I mean, I know what the Braves did in twenty twenty one was brilliant. You know, they whether it's Josh Peterson wasn't having a good year, Eddie Rosario wasn't having a good year, so Layer wasn't having a good year. But those players had track records and then they basically bought on the you know, the idea that they would you know, the regression to the meme, and they did, and I think that was really effective and I do think there's a tendency at the deadline to like who's the who's hot right now, who's playing really well, and it it is definitely comforting to to get that guy who's doing that. But at the same time, like there's also a really good argument that like sometimes like you know, listen, like this guy's a good player, he has a good track record, and he you know, he's having a down year. Sometimes it's just a matter of time until he plays well. So we have both those discussions both on like this guy is a better player than this but also I mean I'm talking to our pitching guys all the time about you know, different guys like you know, adding a pitch or you know.

00:14:50
Speaker 3: A delivery adjustment.

00:14:51
Speaker 2: I do think on the pitching side, I think that's a little bit more prevalent than on the hitting side. And I would also, like you said, you talk about our our pitching and our pitching infrastructure has been really good, Like I would also make note that our eight defenders are really good too, you know, And I think that that is a significant part of our pitching value honestly, is that we play really good defense. We have a lot of really good defenders. We make plays, and I think that you know, that is that is a part of our pitching infrastructure in a way as well.

00:15:24
Speaker 4: Cole Hammil's would be another good one too, if you guys just betting on the track record.

00:15:28
Speaker 2: There well, and you know, honestly like the Cole Hamil's deal, I mean I learned a lesson on Justin Verlander the year before, you know, where you know, he was available in trade. His stuff was down. He didn't look good with Detroit. You whenever a player of that age has declining stuff, it's hard to you know. And then he went to Houston and immediately his stuff ticked up. And that's when it's like trying to.

00:15:56
Speaker 3: Balance the what is injury? What his age?

00:16:00
Speaker 2: What is I'm frustrated in this bad situation right now? And so the next year with Cole Hamil's, we sort of didn't overthink it. You know, he was struggling and we went and got him and the like felt like literally the minute he put our uniform on that year, he was dominant. And so I do think that's a little bit of the human factor sometimes and you could go pretty poor making that bed over and over, you know, But I do think there's times.

00:16:28
Speaker 3: That that that that can make.

00:16:30
Speaker 2: Sense with a veteran guy with that kind of track record, and certainly, like I said, Cole came in and immediately, you know, pitch fantastically down the stretch.

00:16:38
Speaker 5: Hey, let's do a little player spotlight thanks to Arena Club. AJ give me a player this season that you think is underrated and you might want to try and grab his card.

00:16:46
Speaker 3: James would.

00:16:47
Speaker 7: I don't know that he's underrated, but Washington National's superstar in the making, and the first slab pack I ever opened had him in his rookie card and the value is only going to.

00:16:55
Speaker 3: Go up and up and up. And I'm not going to sell it Kwie yet. Scott.

00:16:58
Speaker 7: I'm gonna hold on too, because after he continues to hit big homers and put up the stats make All Star teams, it's going to get more expensive for someone to buy.

00:17:06
Speaker 5: For me. This is his first full season in the majors. Keep that in mind. I think he's underrated. He's on a Nationals team that's man putting enough attention.

00:17:14
Speaker 3: He might underrated.

00:17:16
Speaker 7: When he makes the All Star team this year, They're not going to be underrated.

00:17:19
Speaker 3: That helps.

00:17:19
Speaker 5: He's been intentionally walked four times in a game. Anyway, if you want to try and find a wood rookie card, go check out slap packs on Arena Club and right now you can get twenty percent off your first slab pack. Or if you just want to go with a card purchase, go to Arena club dot com. Slash foul, use code foul. If you buy, sell, trade, collect, go for it.

00:17:39
Speaker 1: We're a council, obviously a unique mind has his favorite saying of these pictures are just out getters. It pushes us not to think of roles. How would you explain his role and outlook on acquisitions? And he kind of does. He play like kind of a devil's advocate role sometimes in there room.

00:18:01
Speaker 2: I think that's his personality in a good way. He's always pushing us on different things. But now he's a he's a significant voice. I mean, we're constantly talking to him about about what we're doing. I think he takes a real interest in it, you know, Like I'd say, every other day when I walk in his office, he's like, yeah, here's.

00:18:18
Speaker 3: My idea of the day, and he throws it at.

00:18:20
Speaker 2: Me and and they're they're good ideas, they're they're like he thinks very much along the lines of a front office person a lot of times.

00:18:29
Speaker 3: And so I think I've said this before, like other.

00:18:32
Speaker 2: Managers I've had didn't really take a significant interest in the acquisition space, and he really does. And I really enjoy it because you know, he knows why we're doing things. He's pushing us to do certain things. And I think that way when you get the you trade for that player, you pick up that player, he's already invested. And that's happened a couple of times this year with guys like you know, the Palme Rans transaction for example, and you know, he's sort of we got him and he threw him right into the fire, you know. And I feel like that's easier to do when you're sort of in lockstep with the front office. You know why they're doing things, and you're able to you know, we got him and he put him. He put him to work right away, didn't didn't have any any hesitation, And I think that's that's because he's part of the process.

00:19:16
Speaker 3: Generously.

00:19:17
Speaker 4: Peekrow Armstrong was a guy who acquired several years ago. I'm curious, can you explain to you know, fans, just like the growth you've seen in Pete behind the scenes, and maybe the moments that stand out in terms of him just kind of slowing the game down, but also handling this kind of sudden burst or next level of fame with I think a lot of grace.

00:19:43
Speaker 3: And humility he has.

00:19:46
Speaker 2: I mean, I've actually told him that a lot of times, how much I appreciate the way he treats people, because you know, you see after a game, we down on the field after a game, there's like tons of family around, and he's trying to have a moment with his parents or or family friends whatever, And every single kid that's down there wants a picture, wants an autograph, like he's the guy. And he's just so patient and and and and takes every picture and signs every autograph. And it's really hard to do that, you know, and he does.

00:20:19
Speaker 3: It really well. He was certainly raised right. I think he was also good by his parents.

00:20:24
Speaker 2: I think he's the program he was in high school, you know, I think prepared him well.

00:20:29
Speaker 3: He's just he's a good human being.

00:20:31
Speaker 2: I think it shows up as for as a player. I mean, I expected all of this kind of minus the power. I guess it's the honest way of say it that I really thought he'd be one of the handful of very best defenders in baseball. I thought he'd be an elite based runner. I didn't think he'd have his kind of power. I was always pushing him to work on spunting more.

00:20:56
Speaker 3: You know, good thing he didn't listen, So yeah, it fouls it off the right.

00:21:03
Speaker 2: But but like, but I think that's what I would say, is like, you know, the shape of the player is the same as I expected, minus hitting balls off the scoreboard, you know, And that's the part that I've been really surprised. But like, these aren't wall scraper home runs. He's not like, you know, hitting balls in the basket with a wind blowing out. I mean, he's hitting balls that are way gone. And that's you know, again, like this game surprises you, which is kind of the fun part of the job, right that you know, it would have been impossible to predict that he would come into this kind of power, but he has, and you know, it's it's vaulted him from you know, really good player to a star and it's been fun to watch.

00:21:45
Speaker 1: Uh, this this question is probably hard to answer as far as the last five years, So I'm going to go with the do O years. And was there a move that either maybe maybe wasn't like about to be made or you thought was done, but something that was you know, discussed quite a bit that you think maybe it would have changed those World Series years that the World Series and in that time in either direction like either this would have extended it by years or this this could have blown things up. Was there a deal that never came together that you guys discussed the.

00:22:18
Speaker 2: One I just mentioned, I think would be a fair a fair one that like you know, you had we traded for Verlander in seventeen, does that does that change things a little bit?

00:22:28
Speaker 3: You know, he was on the market again.

00:22:29
Speaker 2: I look back at the decision making process and I think the process was good. I think the logic was good, but like obviously we got it wrong.

00:22:38
Speaker 3: We should have been aggressive and we should have traded for him that year.

00:22:40
Speaker 2: And I think that's one that I think about sometimes, like how different things could be had.

00:22:47
Speaker 3: That happened, you know, you know, flipping it around.

00:22:50
Speaker 2: Like I think about that, like if you know, if Houston takes Chris Bryan and we take a Pell, I do think that that's you know, I do think with all of these different things, there's a sliding doors aspect of so many moves that you know, I think that yes, like had we gotten Berlin or maybe that would have extended things, for example, but obviously have we not drafted Chris, that might have short circuited.

00:23:15
Speaker 3: The whole process. So yeah, that's probably one that I would I would think about.

00:23:22
Speaker 4: I know, you're not gonna do something just to do something or to make headlines, but like you said, this is a rare sort of opportunity. And you you've talked before about how you know, the best years in base you know, those those rings that you have are kind of you know, the they're the thing like if you're definitely buying. I guess the next threshold would be like can this team win a World Series? And I realized we're in the middle of July, but you know what it looks like, you like, what are the as this team kind of reached those indicators?

00:24:00
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess I would say this. I think we've we've played really well for quite a while.

00:24:05
Speaker 2: I do think though it's a long season. You sort of said, like my mindset is sort of going back to the previous questions. Okay, what things can go wrong, what things are we're trying to fix. But certainly, yeah, I think that we've we've we've show our position playing group has.

00:24:20
Speaker 3: Been really good. I do think that I.

00:24:24
Speaker 2: Think we've pitched well considering some of the injuries. But I do think that's an area that we need to continue to bolster. So yeah, I think there's areas we certainly need to upgrade. And it's just a long season. You know, you don't get it. You know there's no metal for halfway. You know you gotta you gotta keep going. And that that's probably how I look at it.

00:24:43
Speaker 1: Jed, thanks so much for joining us. Well we'll leave it there. Appreciate you giving us some of your time. I'm sure we'll be bugging you over the next month plenty. See it Wrigley and on the road and whatnot.

00:24:53
Speaker 3: I did this podcast so you wouldn't sorry.

00:24:58
Speaker 1: It was not a great beforehand, Sorry and fulfill that problem.

00:25:03
Speaker 3: Thank you.

00:25:08
Speaker 1: All right, Thanks so much for listening to everyone.

00:25:09
Speaker 3: This is Northside Territory.

00:25:10
Speaker 1: Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are on top of all things Cubs. Thanks for listening to everyone