Cubs give Hoyer 5year deal to take over as president
While the window is just opening on Jed Hoyer’s time as the Chicago Cubs’ president of baseball operations, it’s closing on the Cubs’ championshipwinning core.
The Cubs gave Hoyer a fiveyear contract on Monday that runs through the 2025 season, one week after his friend and mentor Theo Epstein stepped down as team president. The 46yearold Hoyer was promoted from general manager to replace Epstein, who oversaw drought busting championships with both Boston and Chicago.
Hoyer takes over a team in the middle of expensive multiyear deals with outfielder Jason Heyward and starting pitchers Yu Darvish and Kyle Hendricks. And four players who were essential contributors to Chicago’s 2016 World Series title — Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Kyle Schwarber — all are eligible to become free agents after next season.
“You always have one eye on the present and one eye on the future. Given the service time realities we mentioned, that eye may be more focused on the future than usual,” Hoyer said. “But that doesn’t take away from the goal, and the goal is always to make the playoffs and give this organization an opportunity to go deep into October.”
The Cubs won the NL Central in the pandemic shortened 2020 season but got swept by Miami in the first round of the playoffs.
Mets end search: New York abandoned its search for a president of baseball operations and will instead focus on hiring a general manager who will report to team president Sandy Alderson.
In the meantime, Alderson told Luis Rojas on Monday he will return for a second season as manager.
Alderson returned to the team Nov. 6 when Steven Cohen completed his $ 2.42 billion purchase from the Wilpon and Katz families and that day fired general manager Brodie Van Wagenen.
Alderson said then he wanted to hire a president of baseball operations but said Monday he had been thwarted in attempts to gain permission to speak with officials on other teams for lateral moves, and another possible candidate had a family issue that prevented a move.
Just like in movies: The White Sox will host the Yankees in the rescheduled Field of Dreams game at Dyersville, Iowa, on Aug. 12.
MLB said the plan is tentative, contingent on the status of public health next summer.
The teams had been scheduled to play at the 8,000capacity temporary ballpark next to the Field of Dreams movie site last Aug. 13.
When the schedule was revamped because of the delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Yankees were replaced as the opponent by the Cardinals, but the game was called off on Aug. 4 because of the pandemic.