CHICAGO — Staying in character, Craig Counsell shrugged off the possibility of the Chicago Cubs selling at the trade deadline, an outcome that would certainly fall short of the expectations when the team made him the sport’s highest-paid manager.
The day after president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer confirmed that the Cubs have no intention of adding rental players for the season’s final two months, Counsell maintained the stoic demeanor and detached view that has largely defined the beginning of his tenure.
“Make sure that you take those comments and listen to everything that he said,” Counsell said before Tuesday’s 1-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field.
Hoyer left a tiny bit of wiggle room if the Cubs suddenly surged in the final week before the July 30 deadline. He acknowledged the roster is limited in terms of trade chips. He kept open the possibility of acquiring players who could help right now and next year. He dismissed the idea of using 2025 as a rebuilding season to let the kids play.
Once you cut through the qualifiers, though, the essential message was clear after listening to Hoyer for almost 30 minutes: Help is not on the way.
“This is our record,” Counsell said of his 49-54 team. “It’s put us in a little bit of a hole and we got to play really well the rest of the year. We have a whole bunch of opportunities left to change that and make that better. That’s how we look at it. That’s how players look at it. And that’s how the coaching staff looks at it. What happens around that is what happens. But it’s not going to change our focus.”
Cubs manager Craig Counsell comments on the trade deadline next week.
Cubs president Jed Hoyer said yesterday his expectation is to make moves with 2025 and beyond in mind vs. making moves only to help in 2024.
— Ryan Herrera (@ryan_a_herrera) July 23, 2024
Counsell’s previous experiences working in Milwaukee’s front office and managing the small-market Brewers have shaped his understanding of how the roster can be maximized and why certain moves make sense.
“It’s not a this or that,” Counsell said. “There’s a big misconception about trade deadlines that they’re this or that. That’s a mistake. I think it’s an easier story to write: ‘It’s either this or that.’ Whatever happens for any team — no matter if you get players or you pivot on players or you sell players, whatever it is, you change the mix of your roster — there’s going to be 55 games left for everybody.”
To quote Counsell, that’s a bad take. Or maybe it’s just a more nuanced conversation in Wisconsin. The big-market Cubs have been a clearly defined buyer or seller in each of Hoyer’s first 12 seasons in Chicago’s front office. After trading away Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Báez at the 2021 deadline, Hoyer memorably said: “You don’t let a crisis go to waste.”
Focusing on “2025 and beyond” inherently means diverting or withholding resources from the National League playoff race that the Cubs are still somehow hanging around as a sub-.500 team.
Counsell’s message revolves around that flickering possibility. In all likelihood, the roster won’t look that much different July 31. In terms of production this season, there isn’t a huge difference between Cody Bellinger and Mike Tauchman if the Cubs decide to trade one of those left-handed-hitting outfielders.
Depth for August and September is a different consideration than trying to cover an entire 162-game season. There may not be an enormous drop-off in the bullpen if the Cubs trade a reliever such as Mark Leiter Jr. and redistribute the innings with emerging young arms (Porter Hodge), pitchers coming off the injured list (Julian Merryweather) and the next man up from Triple-A Iowa (Hunter Bigge).
At least that is what the Cubs will try to convince themselves. And it’s not like there’s that much emotional attachment to a group that hasn’t had a winning record since late May and has been shut out nine times within the last three months.
“There may be some different names in the room because the trade deadline’s an opportunity for the whole industry to transact and change things,” Counsell said. “But for us, it’s go out there and compete.”
(Photo: Jamie Sabau / Getty Images)
