CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs locked in president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer for the long term, agreeing to a multiyear contract extension on Monday.
The 51-year-old Hoyer’s five-year contract was set to expire at the end of the season — his 14th with the Cubs. He was hired as general manager in 2011 and replaced Theo Epstein as president of baseball operations in 2020.
The announcement came hours before Chicago opened an important three-game series at NL Central rival Milwaukee. Led by All-Stars Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker, the Cubs were tied with the Brewers with a league-best 62-43 record.
In a statement, Hoyer said he’s “so grateful” for the “trust and support” of the Ricketts family owners and called the Cubs “a special organization with an amazing fan base.”
“I’m excited to keep building on the momentum we have and to work with a terrific baseball operations staff to consistently deliver a championship-caliber team for this great city,” he said.
Chairman Tom Ricketts praised Hoyer and his staff for building “a healthy player development organization” and putting “an exciting, playoff contending team on the field.”
“We are looking forward to the rest of the season and to working with Jed for years to come,” he added.
Chicago is in position to make the playoffs for the first time since 2020. The Cubs had losing records in 2021 and 2022 before winning 83 games each of the next two seasons. They made a big jump this year thanks to an offseason trade with Houston for Tucker — who has an expiring contract — and the emergence of Crow-Armstrong as one of the game’s top players.
“Jed feels young sometimes but his experience in this role and this job and being a president of baseball operations, he’s done it for a long time,” manager Craig Counsell said in Milwaukee. “He’s not surprised by anything and he’s usually ahead of everything. That’s a really comforting feeling as an organization. Secondly, it’s the human level. Just how you’re treated. He’s treats people really well and the right way. In a work environment like this, it’s emotional. There’s emotional conversations. You can have an emotional conversation and know that you’ll be treated the right way is something that’s really important.”
Hoyer worked in Boston’s front office from 2002 to 2009 before serving as San Diego’s general manager from 2010 to 2011. He reunited in Chicago with Epstein, his old friend and boss with the Red Sox, and the two took the Cubs to historic heights.
Led by young sluggers Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo and veteran ace Jon Lester, Chicago made the playoffs five times in a six-year span from 2015 to 2020. The 2016 team captured the Cubs’ first World Series championship since 1908, beating Cleveland in seven games. Chicago reached the NLCS the following year, but has not advanced in the postseason since that run.
Hoyer dismantled the championship nucleus prior to the 2021 trade deadline, sending Bryant to San Francisco, Rizzo to the New York Yankees and Javier Báez to the New York Mets. The Cubs acquired Crow-Armstrong from the Mets in the Báez deal.
Hoyer also pulled off a tandem of stunning moves prior to last season, when he fired former manager David Ross and lured Counsell from Milwaukee with a record five-year contract worth more than $40 million. It was reminiscent of the Cubs firing Rick Renteria following the 2014 season and replacing him with Joe Maddon.
“He was just very optimistic about the future and where the Cubs were headed,” Counsell said. “He sold that really well and I believed him and I agreed with him. And he was right.”
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AP freelance writer Rich Rovito in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
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