Jed Hoyer offers absolutely infuriating logic to justify how he builds his Cubs teams

In his annual end-of-year moratorium press conference, Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer took dozens of questions from the media as he looks ahead to a critical offseason.

One point he kept circling back to was the need for players to outperform expectations in order for the team to exceed projections - and, frankly, that line of thought is the biggest criticism of Hoyer and his approach to roster-building.

But after back-to-back 83-win seasons that have them on the couch watching the postseason at home like the rest of us, that can't be the plan this winter. You can't raise a team's floor by hoping for guys to outpace projections and turn in career years.

You raise a team's floor by bringing in more talented players. Then, when players do turn in unexpected career years, you go from a playoff-caliber team to a World Series contender instead of fringe postseason hopeful to a playoff-caliber team. I get that you want to put the systems in place to help internal pieces reach their peak potential, but at this point, it's hard to think there's a stone unturned on this Cubs team.

We know, more or less, what Ian Happ, Dansby Swanson, Seiya Suzuki and Nico Hoerner are at this point. In their rookie seasons, Michael Busch exceeded all expectations and looks like a long-term first-base answer and Pete Crow-Armstrong hit his stride over the season's final two months.

There's room for Crow-Armstrong to continue to improve. He needs to show he can maintain his offensive production from start to finish. Busch, also, will continue to grow as he settles in at the big-league level. Could one of them emerge as an All-Star or MVP candidate? Maybe. But you can't bet on that happening as a game plan heading into 2025.

The Cubs need to add to this group because, even with Busch, Crow-Armstrong and Shota Imanaga checking almost every box imaginable this year, it wasn't enough for a team that largely resembled the one that came up short in 2023 to get over the hump. Will it come via a trade that maximizes the team's heap of prospects at Iowa? Can Hoyer capitalize on the tens of millions of dollars coming off the books with a big free agent signing?

Time will tell. But putting all your eggs in the 'hope we can empower guys to outperform projections' basket cannot (and hopefully, will not) be the front office's plan of attack when it comes to closing a 10-game gap in the division between the Cubs and Brewers.