(670 The Score) Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer acknowledged he’s more risk-averse than many in his position when it comes to doling out lucrative long-term contracts.
Asked if he’s fundamentally opposed to giving a star player a contract that’s worth $300 million or more, Hoyer pushed back a bit but admitted he’s more likely than others to be reluctant to sign a player to such a deal.
“I would not say that I’m fundamentally opposed to it,” Hoyer said on the Parkins & Spiegel Show on Wednesday afternoon. “I think with any deal like that, there’s a lot of risk. And I think that obviously, at some level, you’re paying – with any of those deals – you’re assuming that when you sign that player in free agency, there’s an awareness that most likely the end of that deal is going to be highly inefficient and that you really have to gain the efficiency early in that deal. So yeah, I think there’s of course a lot of risk in that.
“I’m not fundamentally opposed to it. I do think that I’m probably more risk-averse on those kinds of deals. Those are the deals you sign the … truly elite. I think there’s obviously a lot of risk in them. But fundamentally, are there players in this league that I think are definitely worth it? Absolutely.”
The biggest contract the Cubs have handed out in their history was an eight-year, $184-million deal to outfielder Jason Heyward ahead of the 2016 season. That deal backfired for the Cubs, as Heyward’s offensive production took a severe downturn immediately upon his arrival in Chicago. Hoyer was the team’s general manager at the time under then-president of baseball operations Theo Epstein.
Hoyer and the Cubs signed current shortstop Dansby Swanson to a seven-year, $177-million deal before the 2023 season. Swanson had a strong 2023 campaign, when he earned All-Star honors, but he has struggled in hitting .219 with a .637 OPS in 98 games this season.
With his Cubs sitting at 51-58 and mired in last place in the NL Central entering play Wednesday, Hoyer did admit that the club’s woes cause him to rethink his approach to team-building at times.
“Anytime you struggle, I think you soul search and you think about those things critically,” Hoyer said. “I think you’d be lying to say that you don’t. Sometimes, there’s a level of randomness to our game. There’s a reason we play 162 games. That’s a reality. But yes, of course, as you struggle, you think about all the different decisions you made, which things you passed up on and which things you did do. And did you do enough? Of course, that’s just the nature of these jobs.
“You wouldn’t be a competitor and you wouldn’t be thorough at your job if you didn’t think about all those things.”