Craig Counsell challenges Cubs' front office with surprisingly honest comments

This was not the end to the 2024 season that the Chicago Cubs front office or manager Craig Counsell likely forecasted when the team hired Counsell away from the Milwaukee Brewers last November.

The expectation was that not only was Counsell's arrival going to place the Cubs back at the top of the National League Central division but would serve as a setback for the Brewers. Instead, the Brewers grabbed the division lead from the Cubs in May and never looked back.

The Cubs' season entered a tailspin in May that the team waited until August to recover from. By that point, it was too late. The Brewers ran away and hid with the division lead. The Brewers clinched the division earlier this week and after the Cubs dropped two of three games to the Oakland Athletics, it all but confirmed the team is not going to be one of the Wild Card teams in the National League this October.

Craig Counsell reminds everyone the importance of why he is here.

In speaking with reporters prior to the team's victory over the Washington Nationals, Counsell offered a refreshingly honest assessment of where the Cubs are.

“Yeah, I mean, we got to get better, man,” Counsell said. “The team we’re chasing is 10 games ahead of us. We got to get better. And we should be trying to build 90-win teams here. That’s like what you have to do. That’s a playoff standard. That’s what you got to get to, to be safely in the playoffs, safely in the tournament. Right? So from that perspective, we got a ways to go.”

What Counsell said on Thursday is far more important than anything Jed Hoyer is going to offer when he meets with reporters at the end of the season. Counsell did not fall back on the idea that the Cubs' pitching staff had to withstand injuries to Justin Steele, Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks, and Adbert Alzolay. Counsell didn't fall back on the idea that the Cubs were unlucky because the team's position players weren't playing to the back of their baseball card at the start of the season. Counsell offered what every fan who watched this team knows--the Cubs are not a strongly run baseball team at the Major League level.

There is no question that Counsell's first season with the Cubs was a disappointment. But his comments on Thursday are a reminder of why it is important that he is here. For all the things that David Ross proved capable of in serving as the Cubs' manager, he wasn't going to challenge the organization to be better and change its way of doing business. Counsell was on the other side before joining the Cubs and realizes the Cubs have work to do as an organization.