Jed Hoyer, the Chicago Cubs’ president of baseball operations, didn’t pull any punches: their pitching staff needs a massive overhaul if they want a shot at a World Series title in 2027. During his end-of-season press conference on Friday, Hoyer straight-up told reporters the pitching “has to improve,” stating that “the great majority of our focus [this winter] is going to be on pitching acquisition.” The position player side, he noted, is “remarkably healthy,” so all eyes are on the mound.
The Wild Card Disaster and a Season-Long Struggle
This isn’t exactly groundbreaking news for anyone who watched the Cubs this year. Hoyer’s comments come just two days after they got absolutely clobbered in the NL Wild Card series, swept by the San Diego Padres. Nothing went right in those two games. They were outscored 12-1, but the glaring weakness was clearly the lack of any impactful starting pitching. Matthew Boyd and Kevin Gausman combined to give up a brutal seven runs in just 7.1 innings during that series. It was a mess.
It wasn’t just a two-game blip, either. Hoyer actually tried to fix the rotation mid-season, trading for Gausman and Clay Holmes before the deadline. But those moves? They barely helped, if at all. From August 3rd through the end of the regular season, Cubs starters coughed up a 4.36 ERA. What’s wild is that this rotation somehow still ended up in the bottom half of MLB in ERA, despite having the best defense in the entire sport! Their 115 defensive runs saved was a whopping 28 more than any other team out there. Imagine having that kind of defensive talent and still being sunk by pitching. Brutal.
Hoyer Takes the Blame, and the Mass Exodus Looms
Hoyer didn’t just point fingers at the pitchers, though. He took a hard look in the mirror and owned up to the bullpen’s struggles. “I did a poor job in the bullpen this year, full stop,” he admitted. The guys they brought in last winter just didn’t perform like they had the year before, a mix of injuries to key players and some flat-out “poor performance, some poor acquisitions.” The numbers don’t lie: Chicago’s 28 blown saves this season were tied for the sixth-most in MLB. Only the White Sox, a playoff team, had more with 30. That’s a gut punch when you’re trying to win close games.
Now, Hoyer’s focus on pitching isn’t just about disappointment; it’s a massive necessity. Four key pitchers , Kevin Gausman, Clay Holmes, Matthew Boyd, and Shota Imanaga , could all be free agents. Boyd has a $15 million mutual option, and Holmes has a $12 million player option. Those four guys accounted for a staggering 400 innings pitched for the Cubs this season. That’s a massive chunk of their rotation and bullpen that could just vanish, forcing Hoyer’s hand. Yeah, there’s also some work to do with the lineup, with Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki hitting free agency, but with Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman coming back, the team has a solid floor on the position player side. But man, that pitching staff? Hoyer has a massive job ahead of him this winter. He’s got to find hundreds of innings worth of quality arms to avoid another year of frustrating collapses.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Bleacher Report.
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