SAN ANTONIO — While the public only recently found out that outfielder/first baseman Cody Bellinger would be opting into the second year of a potential three-year deal with the Cubs, team president Jed Hoyer said he had an inkling nearly 10 days before, after some chats with agent Scott Boras.
“It’s great,” Hoyer said. “We signed him to that deal and we love him as a player. Any time a really good player decides to stay with you, that’s really good news.”
On the first night of the GM Meetings, Hoyer stood in the lobby of the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa talking to a group of local Chicago media members. He was heading to a banquet where one of his chief rivals, Milwaukee Brewers general manager Matt Arnold, won executive of the year. Now Hoyer heads into a critical offseason as he looks to improve a club that finished 10 games behind Arnold’s.
Hoyer isn’t wrong that Bellinger is a really good player. But he followed up his 136 wRC+ in 2023 with a 109 wRC+ last summer. While still productive, that’s going from near-MVP production — considering he was also playing a solid center field that season — to only slightly above average. Add in that the Cubs have two young players they’re committed to at Bellinger’s primary positions — Pete Crow-Armstrong in center and Michael Busch at first — and the fit isn’t ideal.
This is an offense that has to be better, or at least more consistent, in 2025. Losing Bellinger would have been a ding to the overall group, but it also would have given Hoyer and company an additional $27.5 million in payroll flexibility to look for offensive upgrades. Bellinger’s decision allows the front office to have a clear idea of how they want to attack the winter.
Seiya Suzuki was the Cubs’ DH in 36 of his last 37 games. (Quinn Harris / Getty Images)
“Now we know what our roster looks like and we can go about building the team,” Hoyer said. “Before that, there was some uncertainty and now it adds clarity. Spend the next four days talking to teams, talking to agents and get a feel for the market.”
Hoyer said it would be “premature” to determine where Bellinger would play next season. Displacing Seiya Suzuki from right field and pushing him to the DH role again as the Cubs did at the end of last season would certainly be an option. Hoyer added that he “wouldn’t say that yet” as far as the offensive side of the roster being set for now. What that means won’t be clear until spring training when the team heads to Arizona, but it appears Hoyer is open to finding out-of-the-box ways to upgrade the team.
“We’re looking to be creative, if we can find value on the margins to be able to do that,” Hoyer said. “You’re always trying to be creative and there’s room for it this year.”
Upgrading the offense would seem like a must to anyone who watched the unit in May and June. During those months, the Cubs scored the third-fewest runs in baseball and generally struggled to consistently produce at the plate. But Hoyer was happy with how they rebounded.
“I was really pleased with how that group played in the second half of the season,” Hoyer said. “Our offense was good, our defense was good. Considering the wind, I thought we produced well. Obviously, we went through a long stretch of not producing. Things settled out a bit more.”
From July 1 on, the Cubs scored 389 runs, the third-most in baseball over that span. So Hoyer isn’t wrong. But relying on that stretch of performance rather than aggressively trying to find ways to improve would be a risk considering Hoyer is under pressure to make the playoffs with the Cubs failing to do so in a full season since 2018.
How this offseason plays out is critical for Hoyer. Bellinger looks like he’s coming back — for now, at least. Hoyer has to know he can’t run it back exactly as it looked last season. Getting creative could mean many things. At a minimum, it has to mean getting better.
(Top photo of Cody Bellinger: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
