The Dodgers exist on their own plane — a world apart — in the National League. If we didn’t all agree on that before starting pitchers Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto combined to throw 17 innings and allow one run in Games 1 and 2 of the NL Championship Series, surely we’re nodding our noggins in unison now.
The team on the wrong end of the NLCS thus far — the Brewers — is one of a kind, too. No organization matches, let alone exceeds, the Brewers’ ability to do more with less. As identities go, it could be argued theirs is every bit as clear and strong as that of the mega-budget, mega-talent, mega-mojo defending champs.
Beyond that, there are other NL clubs that have set their sights on the World Series, talked like it and, to varying degrees of success, spent like it. The Mets went for the jugular and failed spectacularly, but at least everyone knows who they are.
And then there are the Cubs. Who are they? They want to be good without having to risk shoving all-in to be great. They want to consistently be in the playoff picture without hitching their wagon long-term to superstars. They’re perfectly OK, generally speaking, with wild-card berths even if that means playing second fiddle in the division to a small-market rival.
If the Cubs have an identity, though, how to articulate it? How to crystallize it?
I invited president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer to take his best shot at it Wednesday at his end-of-season debrief with reporters at Wrigley Field. After all, if anyone should be able to do it, it’s the prez who’s essentially embarking on a second term in office after having inked a contract extension heading into the trade deadline in July.
“The No. 1 area I think you’d probably focus on that sets us apart right now is our defense,” Hoyer began. “I think we’re an exceptional defensive team. I think that we played really good defense, we played really clean baseball and we threw a ton of strikes this year. I think that, defensively, my hope is, going forward, we continue to build teams that way.”
Perhaps sensing that description didn’t have the same oomph to it as, say, “Just win, baby,” Hoyer revved himself back up.
“Every year, I want to build something that’s consistent [so] you know when you pay for your season tickets at the beginning of the year, [or] when you’re going to a game, you know you’re going to see a really clean, good brand of baseball and you’re going to see a really competitive team. …
“I want our identity to be a consistently really good team, to create teams the fans identify with the way they did this year. If we do that year in and year out, we’ll be in really good shape. And hopefully we can continue to move this press conference back a little bit every year. That would be the goal.”
Moving his press conference back next season would mean having made it at least as far as the NLCS. So there you go, put the man on the record — it’s final four or flop in 2026.
What else did Hoyer say?
That the Cubs, knocked out in the division series by the Brewers, left some goals on the table.
That his prevailing feeling about a 92-win wild-card season was, nevertheless, “pride.”
Hoyer also continued to blame a “tight” trade market for his inability to acquire a top starting pitcher for the playoff push, which was, of course, exactly what the team needed.
Alluding to Snell’s and Yamamoto’s ace-like outings this week in Milwaukee, Hoyer referred to a “one-team exception,” the implication being all other teams have required parades of relief pitchers to get through games. While it’s true many games have been like that, the Dodgers aren’t the only team that has had aces perform like aces in the playoffs. The Tigers’ Tarik Skubal averaged right around seven innings and 100 pitches in three starts. The Red Sox’ Garrett Crochet pitched deep into the eighth and threw 117 pitches in the wild-card round. The Brewers’ Freddy Peralta lasted 95 pitches in Game 1 against the Cubs.
Maybe the roster put together by Hoyer just wasn’t good enough?
As for the division, perhaps the Cubs should put more emphasis on winning it? They went 4-1 at Wrigley in the playoffs but were 0-3 on the road, failing to win even once in Milwaukee without home-field advantage.
“Certainly, losing the division put us at a disadvantage in that regard,” Hoyer acknowledged.
But he added, “Overly focusing on what just happened in eight [playoff] games can be really difficult.”
Hoyer is not afraid to say the Cubs have entered a stage when they should be expected to rise annually to a playoff level. It might seem obvious, but consider the Cubs are still under .500 at 403-407 since Hoyer stepped into predecessor Theo Epstein’s shoes. The Cardinals are 20 games over .500 in that same span. The Brewers? A whopping 116 games over.
Why was Hoyer extended before reaching the playoffs again?
But he was, and then the Cubs got to October and all was well and good at Wrigley. So, good for him.
Hoyer might take bigger swings in his role if he operated emotionally — from his gut — but that has never been his style.
“You’re saying I’m not sentimental, huh?” he jabbed back Wednesday.
But those playoff games at Wrigley were something else. It had been a while. Too long.
“If you want to talk sentimental, I don’t think we had feelings like that in the building since, like, 2015 and ’16,” he said. “It makes you want to work that much harder this winter, makes you want to get in earlier, makes you want to make that much better decisions, because you want to keep experiencing that.”
We’ll hold him to it.
