Jed Hoyer's insults Cubs fans while addressing Craig Counsell's revealing comments

It's not all smiles for Craig Counsell and Jed Hoyer as the Chicago Cubs close out a 2024 season that can't be viewed as anything but a disappointment.

The expectation was that the Cubs were going to return to the postseason through way of being back at the top of the National League Central. The reality is that the Cubs were out of contention for winning the division by the time the calendar flipped to July. In the closing weeks of September, the Cubs have also faded out of the National League Wild Card picture.

That is why Counsell deserved credit last week for his honest assessment of how far the Cubs are from being a 90-win team. Hoyer met with reporters on Monday ahead of the Cubs' loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, and while he did fall back on the idea that "a team's record indicates what they are", there were the same concerns about his roster construction philosophy.

“All of us, from me on down, we have to look at what we need to do this offseason, and going forward, to get to that place consistently,” Hoyer said. “It’s not about doing it once; it’s about getting to a place where we feel like we can do it consistently.”

It's not that hard. Teams that spend money usually contend. All Hoyer has to do is look at the team the Cubs are playing this week. The Philadelphia Phillies are the exact team the Cubs should be. The Phillies did not scoff at Bryce Harper's asking price and paid him. They didn't stop there. The Phillies have continued to spend each offseason since signing Harper, and that is the biggest reason why they have been a perennial contender in the National League.

For as much as Hoyer loves praising the Cubs' internal growth, he can even look internally at what the organization did between 2015 through the 2017 season. The Cubs were not afraid to spend during that window and the result was NL Championship series appearance, World Series title, and NL Championship series appearance. That is three seasons where the Cubs were consistently one of the best teams in the National League, in part, because of the moves they weren't afraid of making in the offseason.

That three-year contention window was not propped open because the Cubs did not have the ability to supplement the roster with a strong farm system. The farm system is at its best when supplementing a Major League roster constructed by a front office that isn't afraid to spend. Until Hoyer has that realization, living on the margins will always be the cause of death for this front office's failed ideologies.