Ranking the 5 best moves the Chicago Cubs have made in the Jed Hoyer era

Jed Hoyer's reign as Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations is heading into its fifth and possibly final year. Although Hoyer's tenure kicked off with a controversial rebuild, the Cubs would not be heading into 2025 as the favorites to win the National League Central if it wasn't for his decision-making.

With the Cubs hopefully on the precipice of returning to playoff contention, here are my rankings of Jed Hoyer's top 5 moves.

5. Signing Dansby Swanson

Dansby Swanson may not put up the flashiest numbers compared to other shortstops around the league. But his signing with the Cubs before the 2022 season was an important move that the Hoyer regime should be proud of.

For one, Swanson provides leadership in the clubhouse. After six seasons with the Atlanta Braves, including four straight postseason runs and a World Series victory, Swanson became a seasoned veteran in MLB. His joining the Cubs marked a new era after the World Series core of Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Javier Baez was dismantled.

Swanson's presence on the roster attracts others to the Cubs and makes Chicago a more desirable free-agent destination. He is a lockdown player at shortstop who plays gold-glove defense and gives it his all on the field, to the point where he apparently played with a hernia during the 2024 season. Perhaps this injury negatively impacted his offense, which looked abysmal at times last year, and it sounds like he should have told the team about it earlier. But to Hoyer's point, this shows who Swanson is. A fierce competitor that wants to play every single day.

“We were surprised, candidly, which is fine,” Hoyer reportedly said Monday at MLB winter meetings. “That’s his personality. He was going to play, but clearly he was feeling something he wanted to get fixed.”

Hoyer went into the 2022-2023 offseason wanting to sign one of the four big shortstops on the market and he got a great one in Swanson on a relatively affordable contract. We've only seen two years of Swanson's seven-year pact worth $177 million. Hopefully, he can avoid playing injured in 2025 and beyond to lead this team to a postseason run.