Chicago Cubs: Will it be a retool or rebuild under Jed Hoyer?

Cubs fans know what a rebuild looks like, but one in 2021 would look different

There is no real need to explain to a Cubs fan what a typical rebuild entails. Tearing it all down and starting over essentially. If the Cubs were to go this route, we are looking at most if not all the core traded away with a year or two and rebuilding through the farm and upcoming younger players.

One could not help but wonder if this is possible with the talks of “heavy restart” from executives. Hearing Epstein talking about the long-term of the organization before departing can naturally turn the rebuild thoughts in fan’s minds on. It is also easier to think about a rebuild seeing as Chicago fans on both sides of town have gone through them in the past decade and they have produced positive results.

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A potential rebuild for the Cubs in 2021 obviously will see a few key differences than the one initiated in 2011. The rebuild that resulted in the 2016 World Series began with an entirely new front office regime, with very few valuable assets in both the farm and MLB team.

Epstein had to bring the organization into the 21st century and completely start from scratch. Hoyer at least has assets to trade, an analytically-driven organization put in place and a farm that is at least hopefully on the upswing after recent drafts. It would still be a challenging long term project requiring time and effort.

Why the Cubs would go this route:

The core has had a number of issues since they won in 2016, from injuries to just not playing as expected. Whether we like it or not, extensions to key core players will not happen for all of them. Getting value while they can might be the best long term solution for Hoyer. Other key players are growing in age and might be best to think they will need to replaced sooner than later. A rebuild is saying that Hoyer wants to fully hit restart because the current core does not give them a good enough chance to win a World series going forward, and he’d rather take time to develop a new team like many other powerhouse teams recently have. 2016 might just have been the peak.

Time will tell what happens this offseason and next year. Depending on the direction they head in after a few trades in the offseason, 2021 could determine if they go further down a rebuild path or look to quickly shore up the teams they made recent changes to. Nothing can necessarily be ruled out right now, but going absolute full rebuild right off the bat does seem pretty drastic.