Cubs: Jed Hoyer comments on possible rebuild plans ahead of trade deadline
By Josh Hill
Chicago Cubs team president Jed Hoyer commented on a possible rebuild and how long he thinks one would take on the North Side.
Mercifully breaking an 11-game losing streak didn’t do much to turn the Chicago Cubs around this season, and the team has been pegged as potential sellers at the deadline.
Chicago sat in first place in the NL Central just a few months ago but has since plummeted to third and is in serious danger of falling comfortably into fourth-place. Winning, along with Wrigley Field going to full capacity, doused Cubs fans into a false sense of hope that has now burst into flames.
A fire sale seems to be on the horizon, especially with rumors swirling about the futures of Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and other key members of the World Series core.
Less than five full seasons removed from winning the World Series, the Cubs are staring directly down the barrel of a rebuild and no one is happy about it.
Cubs fans aren’t the only ones upset about the idea of a lengthy rebuild; Jed Hoyer has gone on record with his thoughts on the Cubs tearing things down and rebuilding a potential winner.
MLB Rumors: Cubs president Jed Hoyer comments on the potential rebuild plans
Hoyer went on 670 The Score and talked about how long he believes a Cubs rebuild would be.
Spoiler alert: Not long at all.
In fact, Hoyer made sure to note that the rebuild already happened, and the Cubs have players in place that would make whatever changes happen more along the lines of a soft rebuild than a total teardown.
“When we walked in, in 2012 we realized that this was going to be a really long process to get good. We didn’t feel like we had the right pieces together,” Hoyer said. “Now I think with the players we have I don’t see any reason why this needs to be a long process.”
Given that the team is sinking like a rock on the wrong side of a .500 record, the Cubs will almost certainly be sellers at the deadline.
Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant are both unrestricted free agents after this season, and both are obvious, if not painful, trade candidates. But Chicago has Nico Hoerner, David Bote, Ian Happ, and Kyle Hendricks either team controlled or arbitration-eligible for the next handful of years. Javy Baez is a free agent at the end of the season, but he could be brought back if Rizzo and Bryant are gone — which isn’t a foregone conclusion that they will be.
Add to that the expected arrival of top prospects Brailyn Marquez, Brennen Davis, and Miguel Amaya in 2022 and the Cubs aren’t as bad off as it otherwise seems.