Cubs exec Jed Hoyer regrets late collapse, says offseason focus will be on pitching upgrades

CHICAGO (AP) — At the end of a summer Jed Hoyer called “unlike any season I've been through,” the Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations said the team's late-season fade and postseason collapse were difficult to swallow.

“Ultimately, as we sit here today, it feels like we let something slip away," Hoyer said Friday during his postseason media availability. “That's the hardest thing. I think these fans deserve home playoff games and we let it slip away in September, especially the last week."

Long before a two-game postseason sweep at San Diego, the Cubs were within three games of the Brewers in the NL Central and in the first wild-card position on Aug. 12 but closed out the season 18-23, including a 2-5 record against the Brewers and a 2-4 finish that helped cost them home-field advantage.

Even with the best offense and arguably the best defense in baseball, injuries to starting pitchers, an erratic bullpen and hot-and-cold hitting all contributed to the Cubs' inability to keep pace with the Brewers. The late fade was in keeping with a wild season that saw the Cubs post two 10-game winning streaks and a 10-game losing streak en route to 89 wins, the second-most for the franchise since 2018.

The Cubs led MLB with 850 runs in the regular season, got the team's first ever 40-40 season from presumptive MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong and enjoyed a red-hot finish by Alex Bregman after a painfully slow start — no one hit more home runs after July 27 than Bregman's 18, out of his 28 on the season — but managed just one run on eight hits in the two losses at the Padres.

“We have to work really hard to get back to that place,” Hoyer said. "Obviously I think losses like this are really motivating, but in the moment, right now, I feel for the fans who supported this team so much because I feel like they deserved a long run this year."

Projected rotation starters Kade Horton and Justin Steele both missed the entire season and Edward Cabrera and Matthew Boyd both spent time on the injured list. Cabrera, a major offseason acquisition, had the worst season of his career when healthy. The Cubs added starters Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes at the deadline, to no avail.

Only the A's gave up more home runs in 2026 than the 231 the Cubs allowed and Hoyer acknowledged his team has done a better job developing hitters and position players than pitchers, to the point where it's holding back the franchise.

“From a pitching standpoint this year, we sort of struggled from the get-go,” Hoyer said. “Some of that was based on injuries to some guys we were really counting on, but some of it was based on poor performance. Some of it was some poor acquisitions. I think that's something we need to look at. Right now, we are out of balance, and how do we balance that out?”

The pitching struggles only underline the frustration at being unable to keep pace with the Brewers despite the Cubs' advantage in resources and market size, even hiring manager Craig Counsell away from them ahead of the 2024 season.

“Go ask the rest of Major League Baseball. That's hard to keep up with,” Counsell said ahead of the first of the seven late-season games against the Brewers. "They're having a fabulous season. Disappointed isn't the right word. They're a good team. I'm not surprised by that. I'm not surprised at all. We're a good team. I mean, we're not a 100-win team. We're not going to be a hundred-win team this year.”

Hoyer acknowledged that the Cubs have a financial advantage in the NL Central but argued that's not necessarily true across the National League. Still, the Brewers have set a standard the Cubs are failing to meet despite a $248 million payroll, the eighth largest in MLB, that's nearly twice as large as Milwaukee's.

Changes are likely regardless, with 10 potential free agents, including popular outfielders Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ, going into an offseason when Hoyer said the heavy focus would be on improving the pitching staff.

“The team’s going to look and feel different next year,” Hoyer said. “In a lot of ways, that’s a good thing.”

Hoyer said there were times during the season that he thought the Cubs were the best team in baseball, which led to the decision to try to bolster the rotation at the deadline.

“We believed in this group,” Hoyer said. “We think we have the best player in baseball. We have an exceptional position playing group. We believed in this group and we fell short. We let that opportunity slip away and that’s the part that will gnaw at us for a long time.”

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