CHICAGO — Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell refused to sugarcoat his team’s slow fade from the playoff picture, sending a message to the entire organization that changes in Wrigleyville need to happen fast.
Counsell delivered that reality check the day after the Milwaukee Brewers clinched the division title, his low-key voice rising with a different edge and a new sense of urgency. Counsell leaving his hometown team to become the sport’s highest-paid manager was supposed to shift the balance of power in the National League Central, not usher in a season of wire-to-wire dominance by his former club.
“There’s a big gap,” Counsell said Thursday. “They’re ahead of us by a lot. It’s a talented team. On and off the field, that’s a talented team. There’s a big gap, and we got room to make up. There’s no question about it. Frankly, that makes it daunting.”
Counsell spoke in the Wrigley Field interview room where the pregame media briefings usually revolve around softball questions and happy talk. Counsell’s postgame sessions with reporters are almost always short and to the point — a recognition that it’s a long season and the manager rarely pops off in that setting.
At this point, though, there’s no hiding from the standings. The Brewers have spent every day in first place since the end of April — even after trading away Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes last winter — while the Cubs have struggled to gain traction above the .500 level that signifies mediocrity.
Counsell didn’t dispute the observation that he sounded as animated as he’s been all year.
“Yeah, I mean, we got to get better, man,” Counsell said. “The team we’re chasing is 10 games ahead of us. We got to get better. And we should be trying to build 90-win teams here. That’s like what you have to do. That’s a playoff standard. That’s what you got to get to, to be safely in the playoffs, safely in the tournament. Right? So from that perspective, we got a ways to go.”
Notice how Counsell didn’t use injuries as an excuse or try to sell false hope about this team being really, really close. There was no filibuster highlighting a good clubhouse culture and a strong pitching infrastructure. There were no promises about a magical farm system. Every level of a multibillion-dollar organization should be paying attention.
The Ricketts family authorized a major-league payroll that’s projected to finish this year around or slightly above the $237 million luxury-tax threshold. But in terms of spending, the Cubs have been surpassed by the aggressive owners who run franchises like the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. So far, the methodical, rational approach simply hasn’t been good enough.
Jed Hoyer’s baseball operations department has acquired dazzling talents such as Shota Imanaga and Pete Crow-Armstrong, and improved the pitching pipeline that produced Justin Steele. The Cubs have a solid lineup of above-average, two-way players as well as an expanded pool of intriguing prospects. But with 2025 looming as the final season of Hoyer’s five-year contract, the team president will be under intense pressure to produce a roster that breaks through an 83-win ceiling.
Firing David Ross and hiring Counsell away from Milwaukee was one way that Hoyer hoped to gain ground in the NL Central. Counsell declined to go into specific recommendations that he will make to Hoyer’s front office: “Do you want me to share them with you?”
Yes.
“No, I’m not going to do that,” Counsell said.
Counsell indicated that he already congratulated Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy, his longtime bench coach and old college coach at Notre Dame.
How do the Brewers seem to outperform expectations year after year?
“I think I just (said that) — talented people on and off the field,” Counsell said.
Counsell didn’t come into this job acting like he already knew all the answers or needed to put his imprint on the team. He agreed with the assessment that he spent his first season in Chicago studying the organization and contemplating the best path forward.
“You’re always doing that,” Counsell said. “You’re also trying to make immediate change, for sure, to help us be better. So those are both true. And you continue to do both.”
Given Counsell’s influence within the organization, it’s hard to imagine the Cubs sticking with the status quo. Hoyer hired Counsell, who once worked in Milwaukee’s front office, with the idea of creating a partnership. A manager with a five-year, $40 million contract doesn’t just sit through the daily press conferences and make the in-game decisions. Counsell surely has ideas about R&D, scouting, player development, roster construction and free agents.
Counsell added “the whole division” will be facing this challenge: “I would say that about the other teams, too.” But the Cubs are the team that Counsell chose, the big-market franchise 90 miles south of Milwaukee that has once again underachieved: “They’ve created a gap the last two years in the division. Yeah, we got room to go, man. We got work to do, for sure.”
(Top photo of Craig Counsell, who on Thursday acknowledged a wide gap between the Cubs and his former team, the NL Central champion Brewers: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
