(670 The Score) Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer doesn’t seem like a fan of manager David Ross’ reliance on the bunt.
Hoyer shared a fairly blunt answer Wednesday when asked about Ross’ decision to bunt twice in the Cubs’ heartbreaking 7-6 loss to the MLB-best Braves on Tuesday. Hoyer started his answer by confirming the bunts were managerial decisions, then expressed an understanding of why Ross calls for the bunt at times before eventually detailing his disdain for the practice.
“Bunts are a tough one, right?” Hoyer said on the Parkins & Spiegel Show. “When you call for them and it works, everyone looks smart. When you call for bunts and it doesn’t work, everyone gets mad. Generally, I’m not a huge fan of bunting in general. But there are certainly late-game situation that it makes sense. Obviously, unfortunately, it didn’t work out last night.”
The Cubs bunted in a pair of key spots Tuesday. With no outs and a runner on first base in the top of the sixth inning as the Cubs led 5-0, speedy outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong laid down a sacrifice bunt. The runner on second would later score to give the Cubs a 6-0 lead.
With the Cubs leading 6-5 in the top of the eighth with no outs, Ross called for another bunt, which completely backfired. Infielder Miles Mastrobuoni – who had been on a tear at the plate lately – tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt to advance catcher Yan Gomes to second, but Gomes was thrown out as the lead runner. The Cubs didn’t score in the inning, and the Braves then plated the tying and winning runs in the bottom half of the inning.
“Specifically with Pete, he’s been struggling a little bit at the plate,” Hoyer said. “With his speed, even a sac bunt can turn into a hit pretty easily. So I think that was certainly one (managerial decision). I think Mastrobuoni’s, I’m sure, was as well. We were just trying to get another run there against a lefty.
“I’m not going to second-guess those decisions. It’s so hard, right? Because if Seiya (Suzuki) catches that ball and we hold the lead in the ninth, no one is really talking about those things. And it gets magnified in that situation. So I don’t want to spend the time with five games left second-guessing it. But I do think in general, I’m a big fan of protecting your outs. I think that that’s the most valuable resource that an offense has. Whenever you can have that mentality of try not to give up outs – and there’s a fine line on the bases as well. Being aggressive, when it works, looks great, but when you give up outs against below-average pitching sometimes, that can really, really hurt you. So in general, that’s kind of always the philosophy I’ve had – is protect your outs. Bunting, in general, doesn’t do that.”
The Cubs have laid down 15 sacrifice bunts in 2023, which ranks 12th in MLB.