What did Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts think of Jed Hoyer’s trade deadline?

The Cubs’ targeted, incremental moves around the trade deadline did not leave chairman Tom Ricketts disappointed.

Roughly 74 hours before Thursday’s 5 p.m. deadline, the Cubs announced a contract extension for president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, whose group has built one of the National League’s best teams.

While the Cubs executed four trades between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon to bolster the club for the stretch run, Hoyer’s front office clung to the organization’s top prospects and passed on the opportunity to acquire a top-of-the-rotation starter.

“It’s really not a matter of: ‘Are you aggressive or not?’” Ricketts said before Friday’s 1-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles at Wrigley Field. “It’s like, ‘What’s available? And what’s the cost?’ I know that Jed did look at some of the higher-profile players, some of the controllable pitchers. There was a lot of discussions going on around that. He has thousands of discussions during the trade deadline.

“What you might call ‘aggressive’ — if something were to fit, he would have done it. But nothing really fit for us. It’s just the way it fell out.”

The Cubs rearranged their roster by acquiring swingman Michael Soroka, right-handed reliever Andrew Kittredge, left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers and super utility player Willi Castro. Taken together, those additions should help reinforce the pitching staff, while Castro provides good insurance for the position players who have largely avoided injuries and may be starting to feel a little worn down.

“We had a good trade deadline,” Ricketts said. “We have a really good team, and we added to it. I think it’s going to be a great couple months. When you look at the guys that are coming in through the trades, and look at the guys that are coming off the injured list, I think we’re really going to be in good shape for the rest of the season and into the postseason.”

The Cubs are still seeking their first playoff appearance since 2020. Hoyer, who went into this season as a lame duck, has already done a lot of the heavy lifting.

After replacing Theo Epstein in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hoyer established a presence in Japan that led to the Cubs signing Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga. The organization’s systemic changes in scouting and player development had already begun toward the end of the Epstein regime, improving the pitching program and creating the trade chips to acquire All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker last offseason. A sell-off at the 2021 trade deadline yielded center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and closer Daniel Palencia and signaled a clean break from the 2016 World Series past.

“Everyone knew when he (took over) in ‘21 that we were a little thin,” Ricketts said. “We didn’t really have a core. We didn’t really have a system. And we knew it was going to take a while to get back to that.

“The way he’s methodically gone about developing the right players and bringing them up, looking for the right guys to add, being thoughtful about who he signs and when he signs them, all those things have added up.

“Going into this season, when we got off to a great start, that just spoke to his decision-making and his judgment. So we were confident a few weeks ago that an extension was the right thing to do.”

Ricketts downplayed the importance of finalizing Hoyer’s new deal ahead of the trade deadline, which seemingly eliminated a possible distraction.

“I don’t think it was the main thing,” Ricketts said. “We knew we were going to do it. We just wanted to get it done. But obviously getting it done before the trade deadline made some sense.”

When Ricketts hired Epstein away from the Boston Red Sox after the 2011 season, the Cubs announced a five-year contract for the Hall of Fame-caliber executive, who brought on Hoyer as his trusted general manager.

The Cubs announced Epstein’s five-year extension near the end of the 2016 season, so that his contract status would not become a story during the playoffs. The eventual succession plan included a five-year contract for Hoyer when he was elevated to president of baseball operations.

This time, however, Ricketts said, “We’re not talking about the terms. He has time to keep building on what he’s already started.”

One theory was that the Cubs may have wanted to match Hoyer’s timeline with Craig Counsell’s contract, which runs through 2028, signifying the partnership between the manager and the front office.

“Nothing that complicated,” Ricketts said.

While some Cubs fans, local media and national pundits criticized Chicago’s conservative deadline approach, Counsell viewed the trades in simple terms. A good team got better. And now they know that this is the group going forward.

“The trade deadline is a negotiation,” Counsell said. “It’s a job for Jed to be responsible to this team and to future Cubs teams. You go through the process, and it goes how it goes. We successfully added to this team. You got to make smart moves. You got to make good moves. Jed did that.”

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