It was hard to remove David Ross, who is but Craig Counsell did the right thing.
Chief baseball operations officer for the Chicago Cubs, Jed Hoyer, said firing David Ross was “very hard,” but adding Craig Counsell was “the best thing to the fan base.”
Hoyer talked about the idea at the GM meetings within Scottsdale, Arizona, on Tuesday. He said it started to grow on him last month, when Counsell was considering offers from other teams, such as coming back to the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Cubs quickly signed him when his contract with the Brewers expired on October 31. Sources tell ESPN’s Jeff Passan that the deal is worth $40 million over five years.
“It just felt like an exceptionally difficult decision, but one that I felt such as I had to make when the opportunity was there,” said Hoyer.
“My job is to figure out a way to win as many games as we’re able in both the near future and the long term, and there was absolutely nothing about this move which I felt like failed to satisfy that criteria.”
Hoyer said the circle felt extremely small to be the team thought about the idea of swapping Ross with Counsell. Some people in the group, like owner Tom Ricketts, didn’t even know it was an option.
Ten years ago, the Cubs did the same thing as they chose Joe Maddon to replace Rick Renteria. However, Ross was an even bigger part of the team than Renteria ever was.
He played for the team and helped them win the World Series in 2016. Then, in 2019, he was chosen to replace Maddon.
Counsell is good at getting the most out of his team, which is something the team wants to use to its advantage. He did this for many years when the Brewers’ payroll was below the league average. Hoyer used what former football leader Bum Phillips said about Bear Bryant to judge Counsell’s skills.
The job of managing people is very hard, according to Hoyer. “The strategic situation is very tough, and it’s even tougher now that we have all the facts.”
And more than any other player, you’re the public face of the team because of how you act, talk, and behave 324 moments a season. That’s really tough. When someone does a great job, it makes sense to pay them a lot.
Tuesday in Arizona, Chicago Cubs President in Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer met with the reporters and told them for the first time what he thought about this week’s changes to the management team.
Hoyer fired David Ross in Monday and then hired Craig Counsell, the former manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, and gave him a record-breaking deal.
Hoyer told media at the GM Meetings that he was on the fence about getting rid of his manager, but that he thought it was the best choice for the Cubs in the short and long run.
“It just felt like an incredibly hard choice, but one I knew I had to make if the chance came up,” he told reporters, such as Maddie Kim who worked for the Chicago Sun-Times.
“From my point of view, it’s my job to find out how to gain control every match as possible, both now and in the future.” There was nothing to this move that didn’t make me think it met those standards.
He also said that Counsell is “at the very top in his game” as a boss and believes he is the best person to leave the company for the future.
The 2023 season saw the Cubs finish with an 83–79 record, but they missed the playoffs over the third straight year. With this new deal, Counsell will make $8 million a season, which is more than any other manager to MLB history.
The Cubs’ management said they were happy with Ross’s work, especially with how he got along with other players in the clubhouse. However, the team quickly signed Counsell after his contract at the Brewers ended.