New poll shows other MLB front offices have zero respect for Cubs' Jed Hoyer

A decade or so ago, the Chicago Cubs front office was not only the toast of the town - but the crown jewel of baseball, a master class in how to run an MLB organization in today's world.

Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer were several years into a painful rebuild but the fruits of their labor - and fans' suffering - were starting to pay off with a farm system on a meteoric rise, headlined by the #2 overall pick in the 2013 draft, Kris Bryant.

That brain trust helped erase a 108-year title drought on the North Side - the ultimate legacy anyone who works in baseball could ask for - and ran off three consecutive NLCS appearances, not to mention the pile of individual accolades and hardware Cubs players accumulated from 2015-2020.

But that same aura of wonder doesn't seem to exist around the now-Hoyer-run Cubs front office. The Athletic (subscription required) polled 40 MLB executives and when asked them to rank the best front offices in baseball. The results? Well, if you're Chicago, they're damning.

Chicago received zero votes in this poll. That's not just zero first-place votes: that's zero votes, period. The only mention of the Cubs comes in the form of Carter Hawkins, who is singled out as an example of the high-quality operation in Cleveland, which has churned out multiple decision-makers across the league in recent years.

There's a clear difference between the Dodgers and Cubs - money

The Dodgers lead the pack by a wide margin, followed by the Rays, Braves, Guardians and Orioles to close out the top 5. That's not a huge shock - and a disclaimer at the very end of the piece points out the difference between Los Angeles and a team like the Cubs, saying: 'it is hard to separate the front office from the sway held by ownership.'

It goes on to say the very best front office heads can get their owners to invest more when it's critical for the success of the organization. The Ricketts family has been painfully blunt in its comments about payroll and making value-driven decisions, and the difference between the Dodgers' ownership and that in Wrigleyville couldn't be clearer.

All that said, the work done by Hoyer and, more recently, Hawkins as well, cannot and should not go unnoticed. We aren't yet three years removed from the 2021 trade deadline fire sale and the Cubs boast arguably the best farm system in baseball and are very real threats to win the NL Central in 2024.

The signing of Shota Imanaga may go down as the most intelligent of last winter and, speaking of those Dodgers, the trade for Michael Busch has the early makings of a steal. Hoyer and Hawkins need to start racking up division titles and postseason appearances before they'll get their due, but despite what the results of this poll may suggest, their time is coming.