MLB insiders believe Cubs' Jed Hoyer is on the hot seat heading into 2025

It might be below-zero in Chicago this week, but the seat Jed Hoyer's currently occupying is already feeling a little toasty. Heading into the 2025 season as a lame duck, the longtime Chicago baseball executive knows that anything short of a postseason appearance this year could end his tenure.

That's not exactly news to those of us who follow the Cubs - Hoyer himself has been open about his contract status and his expectations for himself and the club this year. But it's worth noting this isn't just an internal sentiment that those in and around the organization carry - throughout the league, he's viewed as having a particularly hot seat.

A new poll of current and former executives, coaches and scouts from The Athletic (subscription required) rank Hoyer (and manager Craig Counsell) as #2 on its list of teams, managers and front offices feeling the heat this spring, trailing only Mark Shapiro, Ross Atkins, John Schneider and the Toronto Blue Jays.

Now, Counsell isn't going anywhere. He's in year two of the five-year contract he signed in Nov. 2023 that made him the highest-paid manager in the history of Major League Baseball. But it is safe to say everyone, both inside the organization and out, will expect to see him exert his influence more strongly in 2025 after settling into his new home last year while underperforming to the tune of the same 83-79 record David Ross led the team to the season prior.

Hoyer's job security, however, feels far more tenuous. Although one could easily make the case that if ownership put its best foot forward and leveraged its considerable resources appropriately, Hoyer might not find himself in this position, there has to be a fall guy - and it's not going to be the Ricketts family or Counsell.

With the rebuild complete and a superstar (for what feels like just one year) in Kyle Tucker leading the charge, anything short of the team's first National League Central title in a full-length season since 2017 will feel like a failure - and very well could cost Hoyer his job. Missing out on Alex Bregman doesn't mean that the task is impossible, but adding him sure would have helped take a little pressure off everyone this year, Hoyer included.