Chicago Cubs Exec Fails to Take Responsibility for Offensive Struggles

The Chicago Cubs president didn't do enough in the offseason, and his recent comments show he doesn't understand that.

Nov 13, 2023; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer speaks before introducing Craig Counsell as new Cubs manager during a press conference in Chicago. / Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

The Chicago Cubs offense has gone cold again over the past few weeks. They've had a few games mixed in where they score 10-plus runs, but similar to what they've shown for much of the campaign, they also have had plenty of games where they were shutout or scored fewer than three runs.

It's been an issue all year for the Cubs. They rank 21st in batting average, 19th in home runs, 13th in runs, and 15th in OPS. For the most part, Chicago's offensive production has been well below average.

President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer recently made some concerning comments about the team's struggles on that side of the ball, which showed that he doesn't seem to understand the issue.

“It’s a complicated season to figure out from the offensive standpoint,” Hoyer said on Friday, according to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. “We’ve had these ups and downs during the course of the year, and they’ve been big ups and big downs, which has been difficult to reconcile intellectually.

“I think there’s some 'park effects' things that we have to take into account.”

It's not complicated at all, in fact. The issue is that the Cubs didn't do enough in the offseason, and that was evident in April.

Instead of going out and landing the top hitters on the market, Hoyer relied on Seiya Suzuki to continue swinging the bat as he did in the second half of last season.

He also relied heavily on Cody Bellinger playing how he did in 2023, despite struggling from 2020 to 2022.

Even if both of them played how they did last year, this offense still wouldn't be good enough. That's been evident for 125-plus games. That's why it's very important that Hoyer doesn't allow the 30 or so games they swung the bat at an above-average level in August to dictate his decisions this offseason.

Simply put, Chicago's offense isn't good enough. Landing one hitter this winter won't fix that, either. He needs to revamp a lot of this offense.

His comment and blame for the ballpark don't bring much optimism about the future. At some point, Hoyer needs to look in the mirror and understand that the Cubs weren't good because he didn't do enough.

Good teams find a way to score runs no matter where they play. Take the Colorado Rockies, for example. They play their home games at Coors Field, a ballpark known as the most hitter-friendly stadium in baseball.

But due to their lack of talent, their offensive numbers are still below-average in most categories.

That's Chicago's issue. Not Wrigley's.

Hoyer's job should be on the line, so for his sake, hopefully, he does what's needed and stops making excuses for the disappointing year.