No, the report doesn’t come courtesy of an eye witness at Starbucks.
As we’ve known for almost a week now, the Chicago Cubs are expected to add San Diego Padres GM Jed Hoyer as their own GM soon, together with Padres’ Assistant GM Jason McLeod. That news has been on hold, pending the official addition of Theo Epstein as the Cubs’ new President of Baseball Operations. According to sources, though, Hoyer and McLeod have already been in town.
San Diego Padres general manager Jed Hoyer and assistant GM Jason McLeod have been in Chicago the past three days and are expected to be added to the staff of new Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein no later than Monday, a source close to the situation said.
The Cubs held a news conference Tuesday to introduce Epstein, whose first job will be to preside over the news conferences introducing Hoyer and McLeod, who have been meeting with Epstein and Cubs officials, the source said.
The Cubs and Padres have worked on proper protocol and compensation for Hoyer to move to Chicago, the source said.
Whether that means the duo has already officially been hired (likely) or has already been at work (less likely) is unknown. Either way, the Hoyer/McLeod additions look to be as drama-free as the Epstein addition was drama-full.
The Cubs will still have to ship over some compensation to the Padres for Hoyer/McLeod, but it’s not expected to be much of a process. Indeed, the player(s) headed to the Padres is(are) not expected to outclass the player(s) headed to the Red Sox as compensation for Theo Epstein. Hoyer and McLeod have helped turned the Padres’ farm system from a bottom five organization to a top five organization in just two years, so hopefully whatever holes appear thanks to the various compensation issues will quickly be plugged.
Finally, confirming a report out of San Diego earlier this week, I’ve heard that the announcement of the addition of Hoyer and McLeod will likely come the day after the World Series ends (so, as soon as tomorrow).