NEWSLETTER
To be perfectly honest, the chaos (and farewells) of the last few weeks left me momentarily forgetful that the Cubs actually still need to hire a new GM. I probably wouldn’t have lost sight of that if I didn’t feel confident that the organization was transitioned carefully into the reassuring hands of Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer, but it remains a huge piece of the Cubs offseason puzzle and we’re nearly half-way through DECEMBER.
In any case, Hoyer has an update for us on the status of that search via Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago:
Hoyer (2/2):
“Probably in the next week to 10 days I’ll be able to announce something more formal on that to give a sense of a timeline. It’s a big decision. I want to make sure we do it thoughtfully and do it the right way.”
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) December 10, 2020
The headline reveal here is the timeline. According to Hoyer, we’ll have a more formal sense of next steps within the next 7-10 days. I guess this makes this an informal sense of the next steps, which isn’t particularly exciting, but it’s certainly more than we knew an hour ago.
The equally important part, however, include Hoyer’s comments on the importance of diversity. Remember, diversity isn’t something you strive to achieve solely for its own sake/fairness/equality and all that good stuff (though that’s obviously no small piece), it’s also often a strategically beneficial way to build an organization. People from different backgrounds often have different perspectives and that input can help steer a team away from making the same mistakes over and over. Heck, the “staleness” concern is partly why Theo Epstein hit the road a year early in the first place.
But here’s the question … how do we square those comments on diversity with our latest on the Cubs GM search?
Jared Porter is “The Heavy Favorite” to Be the Chicago Cubs Next General Manager – https://t.co/5kzYkvT4Dg pic.twitter.com/RZGtMBAv2S
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) December 2, 2020
Well, if I had to guess, it’s pretty simple: Jared Porter is still the “heavy favorite” to land the job, given his experience and history with Jed Hoyer, and you can take from that whatever you will about the Cubs commitment to diversity. At a minimum, you hope Hoyer will legitimately consider a diverse range of candidates (in every sense of the word, including professional experience) and just land on the best candidate for the Cubs whatever that means.
For what it’s worth, Hoyer has stressed the value he places in his “shared history” with Epstein during a few interviews since taking over as the Cubs President. And so Porter just feels like a natural fit for what he’s looking to add to the mix. We’ll see. Stay tuned, because by the end of next week, we may have a lot of our questions answered.
