New Cubs brass has plenty to do
The new Cubs brass has spent most of its first days on the job searching for a new manager.
But there’s still that little matter of putting a team on the field for 2012, and one that is much better than the outfit that finished 71-91 this year.
Team president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer will pick up the pace beginning Monday night at the general managers meetings in Milwaukee.
Trades don’t often happen at the GM meetings, but a lot of preliminary talks do. Despite talking to four managerial candidates over the past 10 days or so, Hoyer said he has been able to spend time looking at roster needs.
“Quite a bit,” he said. “The manager process has taken up a lot of time, but we spent a good amount of time. We had a lengthy meeting (late last week), about 40-man (roster) protection. We’ve had a number of conversations about free agents and about trade targets.
“I think for Theo and for me, it’s exciting to go up to Milwaukee and have face-to-face conversations with different teams about our guys. I’ve been trying to make as many GM phone calls as I can to have some pre-GM meeting discussions to sort of lay the groundwork.
“We haven’t had those kind of conversations over a long period of time with different teams.”
There’s a whole lot of work to be done. The Cubs finished third from the bottom in team ERA (4.33) and last in fielding percentage (.978, with an National League-high 134 errors).
The Cubs need at least two starting pitchers. With first baseman Carlos Pena and third baseman Aramis Ramirez on the free-agent market, they have potential holes to fill at those positions — and right field is far from a certainty.
Catcher Geovany Soto hit 17 home runs, but he also had a batting average of .228 with an on-base percentage of .310. And the Cubs still have Alfonso Soriano in left field with three years and $54 million left on his contract.
Hoyer says the Cubs do have a plan for the roster.
“That plan’s probably going to evolve a little bit because we don’t know the personnel quite as well as we will in years to come,” he said. “But I do think we have a good plan. Certainly, we’re not going to (publicly) lay out our plan, but we’ve mentioned certain parts of it.
“It’s no secret we need to get some depth in the rotation. (Lack of) depth of pitching hurt the team last year. We need to find a way to improve the defense, and we need to find a little more athleticism on the bases. Those are all things we’re going to try to solve. As for the actual plan, we’ll keep that to ourselves.”
Hoyer said he would not comment on “individual guys,” such as Pena. The Cubs are keeping an eye on 29-year-old first baseman-outfielder Bryan LaHair, who continues to hit well in Venezuela after leading the minor leagues this year with 38 home runs.
The GM meetings also may bring a conclusion to the compensation talks between the Cubs and Red Sox over the Cubs hiring Epstein away from Boston.