This Chicago Cubs' decision is not the reason for their 2024 failures

81 games into the 2024 Major League Baseball season, halfway through Craig Counsell's first season as the Chicago Cubs manager, fans are beginning to wonder if Jed Hoyer sold the team a false bag of goods when he replaced Davis Ross with Counsell last offseason.

Entering play on Thursday, the Cubs are in last place in the National League Central, trailing Counsell's former team, the Milwaukee Brewers, by 11 games.

The 2024 season has certainly proved multiple facts about the Cubs and where they stand in the National League Central as an organization.

First and foremost, the Brewers are a better organization than the Cubs and it has nothing to do with the manager in the clubhouse. While Counsell is indeed one of the greatest minds in baseball, this season is proving that the Brewers' success extends far beyond one person. At each level of the organization, the Brewers instill an approach that leads to success at the Major League level. That is the reason why when the Brewers' prospects are promoted to the Major League level, they enjoy success right away.

David Ross would not have fixed the Cubs' 2024 failures.

Does that mean that the Cubs made a mistake in thinking Counsell was more suitable for the job than Ross?

No. If we're being honest, Ross would not have made a difference with what has gone wrong with the Cubs' season. If anything, Ross being here would have only delayed the truth from being revealed. The truth is that Hoyer has failed in his construction of the team, and after making a managerial change last winter, he will not be afforded the opportunity to cast the manager as the scapegoat. This is inevitably what would have happened if Ross was the manager of this Cubs' team.

The Cubs have a Jed Hoyer problem and no manager will be able to overcome the failures of the decisions that are made above him.