The Cubs now look like a real Craig Counsell team: ‘He deserves every penny’

Craig Counsell’s breakup with the Milwaukee Brewers is old news, except for the fans who still taunt the Chicago Cubs manager whenever his new team plays on the road at American Family Field.

Even Counsell’s brother-in-law rushed through a pregame family dinner last month to make sure he got to the stadium in time to enjoy all the heckling. As the saying goes: They don’t boo nobodies.

That buzz around the first-place Cubs will only grow louder because this is what a Counsell-led team is supposed to look like. Alert. Athletic. Adaptable.

You could see it and hear it as fans chanted “P-C-A!” and “M-V-P!” during Tuesday night’s 5-3 win over the Brewers at Wrigley Field. The crowd of 38,687 watched in astonishment as Pete Crow-Armstrong hammered Rob Zastryzny’s pitch an estimated 452 feet off the video board in right field. In that same eighth inning, Crow-Armstrong sprinted from center field to make a diving catch in left field, again showing that player development at the major-league level never stops.

An ability to handle young talent was one reason the Cubs pounced when Counsell became a free agent after the 2023 season. Counsell inherited a group of hitting coaches who had history with Crow-Armstrong and exhibited patience throughout that process. As Crow-Armstrong became more comfortable as a rookie last season, Counsell challenged him to catch every ball he could reach with his glove. Even before Tuesday’s spectacular plays, Crow-Armstrong had already received more than 1 million votes to be the National League’s starting center fielder in this summer’s All-Star Game.

“Couns has every one of our best interests in mind,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I trust all the decisions he makes.”

The value of a major-league manager is difficult to quantify, given the job’s vast responsibilities, the collaborative nature of a modern front office and the importance of money to acquire better players. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer saw Counsell as valuable enough to secretly sign him to a five-year, $40 million contract and unceremoniously fire David Ross, a popular player from the 2016 World Series team. It was a shocking move that initially proved underwhelming.

It didn’t really matter whether Ross or Counsell was making the decisions — the Cubs finished with the same 83-79 record in the last two seasons. But as the Cubs form an identity and perform at a high level that demands a major reinvestment at the July 31 trade deadline, the Counsell factor is impossible to miss.

“He deserves every penny that he gets,” said Cubs pitcher Colin Rea, who has played for Counsell in Milwaukee and Chicago.

The Cubs are doing some of the things that so frustrated Cubs executives when Counsell ran the Brewers, a small-market franchise that consistently outperformed projections, making the whole greater than the sum of its parts. That history adds some heat to the Cubs-Brewers rivalry, which resumed with a 90-degree temperature for Ben Brown’s first pitch. Not that Counsell was particularly interested in playing along with that storyline.

“This is the team that’s been on top of the division for most of the last five or six years, so those are important games,” Counsell said. “But I once had a teammate who always came into the clubhouse every single day and said, ‘Biggest game of the year.’ Every single day. So I think that’s kind of how you treat it in general.”

Counsell, who rarely tells stories about his own playing career during those pregame media sessions, declined to identify the player.

“It was a teammate,” Counsell said. “Unnamed teammate.”

Counsell can be guarded and cryptic at times with the media, as well as insightful and blunt. Players appreciate his selective approach and direct style of communication. “He has a really awesome sense of the pulse of the clubhouse,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said, “without always needing his voice to be heard in it.”

Counsell’s subtle influences can be seen in the standings. The Cubs have a 6 1/2 game lead in the NL Central while their projected Opening Day rotation is in tatters. Their 12-6 record in one-run games can’t be all luck. Their longest losing streak thus far is only three games, a reflection of a sturdy roster, solid fundamentals and a steady attitude.

“He played the game forever,” Cubs outfielder Ian Happ said. “He understands what it takes from a group standpoint, how important it is for the group to jell and for guys to care about each other. That’s not talked about a lot in this era of baseball, how important it is for the group to know each other and pull for each other and be able to talk through situations.

“The group cares about each other. They care about beating out the double-play ball to get the next guy up in an RBI situation. You care about those little things, and that’s what kind of keeps the game rolling through 162.”

Working with the organization’s pitching infrastructure, Counsell showed trust in Daniel Palencia, who started this season pitching out of the Triple-A Iowa bullpen and has since taken over for Ryan Pressly as the closer. Counsell demoted Pressly but didn’t bury the veteran reliever, who has not allowed an earned run in 16 straight appearances since a historically bad outing. A bullpen with a 3.15 ERA was largely put together with a bunch of castoffs.

In an attempt to Wrigley-proof the offense, Counsell and his coaches stressed the importance of baserunning and situational hitting. Showing attention to detail, the Cubs have stolen 90 bases through 73 games with an 85.7 percent success rate. Execution means everything in October, as Counsell knows firsthand from earning World Series rings with the 1997 Florida Marlins and 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks.

But first, the Cubs have to play the biggest game of the year, day after day after day.

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