Pete Crow-Armstrong gives Jed Hoyer a vote of confidence as the fanbase seethes

All I can say coming off Thursday's trade deadline is thank god the Chicago Cubs salvaged that finale in Milwaukee or, woo boy, the fan base would be in a dark place right now.

Jed Hoyer and the front office made solid additions, bringing in superutilityman Willi Castro from a Minnesota Twins and shoring up the pitching staff with Andrew Kittredge, Taylor Rogers and Michael Soroka. But the failure to add a playoff-caliber starting pitcher after weeks of speculation suggested the Cubs were poised to go all-in for an ace has the fanbase wildly unhappy heading into the weekend.

But one person who has Hoyer's back is the team's superstar outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.

“All the power to Jed and the boys,” Crow-Armstrong said ahead of Thursday's deadline. “I love Jed. I’m glad he’s here to stay. I think he does a really good job of putting the right pieces together ... I have no clue how this stuff works, but I got all the faith in our front office to go do what they feel is right. And I got all the faith in the boys to just carry on and do what we’re doing.”

Now, I don't have anything personal against Jed Hoyer. But I'm simply tired of the small-market, overly cautious approach this team takes at every turn. The blame for that doesn't land solely in his lap because the buck stops at the man who counts his never-ending river of greenbacks in owner Tom Ricketts. But both are complicit in holding back from unleashing the full potential of this organization and all its considerable resources.

Jed Hoyer has rebuilt the Cubs, but largely continues to play it safe

Since taking over from Theo Epstein, Hoyer has done a great job re-establishing the farm system and making some key trades and signings. The emotional Javier Baez trade at the '21 trade deadline is perhaps his crowning jewel, but the work he did last winter and into the spring assembling the bullpen paid off in a big way in the first half and where would the Cubs be without Matthew Boyd?

An extension could still be in the cards for Crow-Armstrong, as he and Hoyer are known to get along well. But even that is a far more intricate situation than it was when the two discussed the idea during spring training. Then, you were hoping to lock up a guy based solely on tools and a two-month sprint that yielded results. Now, you're going to need to go ask Ricketts for the checkbook, because we're talking about an MVP-caliber superstar-in-the-making.

It's hard to knock Hoyer for the team he's assembled. After all, the Cubs held onto first place in the NL Central until just recently - and have been as many as 20 games over .500. So why wouldn't PCA have faith in him? But his failure to push his chips in for an ace could haunt the team come October, and who knows how the players will feel if that's the case?