Cubs: 3 reasons David Ross isn’t getting fired

The Chicago Cubs have really struggled in the 2022 season but manager David Ross likely isn’t on the hot seat.

The Chicago Cubs are not a good baseball team. Cubs fans and MLB fans alike knew that entering the season. But considering that they made some additions this offseason after they went 71-91 in 2021, it was reasonable to guess that they would be a mid-to high-70 win team.

However, with 100 games left in the 2022 season, the Cubs are on a nine-game losing streak. They are 23-39, or on pace for a 60-102 season, an 11-game regression from 2021.

With the regression, manager David Ross’s job has been questioned. But despite other struggling teams that fired their manager already (the Angels and Phillies), the Cubs are unlikely to fire Ross. Here are three reasons why the Chicago Cubs will not fire David Ross.

1) The Chicago Cubs just extended David Ross three months ago

In the middle of Spring Training just three months ago, the Chicago Cubs gave David Ross a contract extension. The extension wasn’t a small one either.

They extended him for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons with a team option for 2025.

If he didn’t have an extension after this year or if it was just for 2023, Ross could be on more of a hot seat. But after just extending him for at least two more seasons and an option for a third, that alone makes firing him extremely unlikely. But there are still two more reasons that further cement it.

2) The Chicago Cubs are in the middle of a rebuild

In 2021, the Chicago Cubs saw their first losing season since 2014. Since they started last season so poorly, they traded outfielder Joc Pederson, reliever Andrew Chafin, first baseman Anthony Rizzo, reliever Ryan Tepera, infielder Javier Báez, infielder/outfielder Kris Bryant, and closer Craig Kimbrel in July.

In other words, the Cubs only signaled that they would go into “rebuild” mode 11 months ago. They knew that they weren’t a good team last year and even with the additions of this offseason, they weren’t going to be a great team in 2022.

Most MLB teams aren’t going to change managers during a rebuild. Before, after, or even if the rebuild isn’t going well? Absolutely. But they have only been rebuilding for 11 months so it hasn’t been long enough to see whether or not things are going in the right direction.

3) Cubs President Jed Hoyer just gave him a huge vote of confidence

On Thursday, Cubs President Jed Hoyer spoke with the media and he gave David Ross a huge vote of confidence.

“He’s done a great job” is much different than Dave Dombrowski’s comments on Joe Girardi just a few weeks before the Phillies fired him.

“As I’ve always said to people, Joe’s been fine,” said Phillies President Dave Dombrowski just one week before he was fired. The comments didn’t exactly exude confidence then but Hoyer’s comments are much better for Ross.