Q-and-A: The Chicago Cubs’ young core faces big questions. Jed Hoyer weighs in on Busch, PCA and Shaw (Part 2)

Posted March 26, 2026 9:58 am

By Jon Greenberg

MESA, Ariz. — Every year, Cubs president Jed Hoyer sits down with me for a long Q&A. Part one was published Wednesday. Here is part two.

Q: Let’s talk about three young players we mentioned who played above projections last year: Busch, PCA and Shaw. Last year, you mentioned a lot of times that you felt Busch was the most underrated player, and I think he still is, because we’re still not talking about him.

A: I was just going to say the fact that you’re 20 minutes into this interview and you’re just mentioning Busch, the guy had 34 homers during the season, he was our best player in the postseason. He was awesome. The teams were pitching around him in the postseason. It’s who he is as a person. He’s sort of aw-shucks about how he goes about it. He’s very understated. I feel like he’s going to be on my Kyle Hendricks Mount Rushmore of low-maintenance people in the organization. He’s an awesome teammate. There’s never a negative word about him. He just goes about his business and does his thing, but in a very understated way. And I think Kyle Hendricks, for years and years, was so underrated. And then finally, I think he became properly rated. I’m hoping, for Michael’s sake, he becomes kind of properly rated at some point.

Q: PCA was huge last season. Fans gravitated toward him; his start was incredible. But then, he struggled, and he’s talked about that. You obviously have an open conversational relationship with him. Have you spoken to him about how to handle everything?

A: I think a lot of things came at him really fast last year. He exploded, right? Going into the season, he’s a guy who everyone knew was going to be a high WAR player because of his defense and baserunning, and then the offense was something that was a kind of work in progress to a certain extent. Then all of a sudden, he’s a top contender for MVP midway through the season, he’s starting the All-Star Game, and people are chanting at him when he’s at the plate. He turned 23 right before the season, so a lot came at him quickly. I think some of that stuff bothered him in the second half. And to me, it’s the learning experience. Sometimes it feels like he’s been here a while. But he turns 24 in a couple of days. He’s a special talent, and I think he’s a special person too. When you see the way people gravitate toward him — teammates, children — the way he plays the game, he’s as exciting a player as there is. I think you put him in the top 10 in terms of just pure excitement.

But then also he goes out of his way to be gracious with everyone, and I don’t think it goes unnoticed to Cubs fans, the way he embraces the city, the way embraces like the other athletes and stuff like that. It’s really fun to watch, honestly. I give him a hard time about it sometimes, but his friendship with Caleb (Williams), it’s awesome to see. You’ve got this great, still-building Bears team, and the fact that they’re hanging out is awesome. I think the struggles last year are going to be good for him. I think that he’s going to learn a lot from that, and it’s hard to be perfectly consistent. No one ever is going to accomplish that in this game, but I think he’ll become more consistent because of what happened last year.

Q: Were you texting him when he was hanging out with Caleb every day, like what’s going on here?

A: His agent sent me a picture of his agent’s two daughters at (Crow-Armstrong) getting his number retired at Harvard-Westlake, and I asked where Caleb was.

Q: That’s great. And then Shaw, he had a good rookie year, he showed up, proved he belonged, and now you put him in a position where he’s a little uncomfortable as a utility player.

A: I think Matt’s rookie season was like Pete’s in a lot of ways, where we talked about sending Pete to the minors so many different times. And kind of the same thing with Matt, where the first half was a struggle, so we sent him down. And then, you look at it, you know, he had an .843 second-half OPS or something like that. I know he did struggle in the postseason, which, by the way, it felt like we were facing 100 (mph) every single day, so it’s a little bit of an unfair bar for him. But I think he had a really good year. I think it’s something to really build on, and he’s going to move all around the diamond, and his versatility is going to really pay off. When we talked about depth early in this interview, we’re going to have injuries, we’re going to have things happen, and the fact that a guy like Matt Shaw is going to step in when we do is pretty awesome.

Q: What lessons have you learned about roster management and getting to the point where you don’t have to make a ton of tough decisions at once? I get it’s a two-way street, with guys on expiring contracts or ones getting to free agency.

A: People have asked me this question a lot this spring because we have a lot of guys that are free agents, and I thought Craig had a great response to it where he’s quoting Celtics head coach Joe Mazzula, who said, “I go to bed questionable and I wake up probable.” I see it as an opportunity, and I also look at it and say, try to embrace the fact that we have a really good group. This group actually has been stable, and that stability can’t last forever. We’re going to look different next year, but just enjoy it. I think being afraid of that change is the wrong thing. While we have potential free agents, we also have stability with young players and players under contract.

Q: Are you also going to be more aggressive this time at trying to get younger players to sign extensions? (Note: I knew a PCA extension was in the works.)

A: You know I’m never going to talk about that. You thought you might tire me out and get me toward the end of the interview. Yeah, listen, we have players on this roster that you hope are here a long time. There’s no question. And if we’re having conversations about it, I never talk about it. But I think everyone knows that there’s really good players here that we’d love to have around for a long time.

Q: How about this two-game series against the Yankees? Is this a World Series preview? (We talked on Monday.)

A: That would be awesome. We’ve had a lot of these, and it’s fun. You get to play a team that you don’t see out here like the Braves, the Cardinals, the Red Sox, and this time we have the Yankees. So it’s fun, but this morning I woke up and felt different. Yesterday was still the weekend before Opening Day, and then waking up this morning was like, in a couple days we’re starting this thing off. Like I said, I’m really excited about the season, but I also try to go into it realizing that it is a marathon, and I know it’s a cliché, but it really is. Our job is to realize that and make adjustments as we go. But it should be a lot of fun. I’ve never been around a group that I was more confident in from a diligence standpoint. It’s just such a serious, diligent group. These guys all want to win. They all put the work in to win. That’s a really awesome feeling. This group is always prepared, always ready. And they always want to play baseball. It’s a really great feeling to have that.

Q: It’s good that we’ve talked this whole time and I didn’t even bring up the 10-year anniversary of the 2016 team. The present is that interesting.

A: I know. We had the party in January, and it was just a lot of fun to see those guys and it feels like a long time ago, it does. I think sometimes you say, “Oh, it feels like yesterday.” That does not feel like yesterday. I think that’s because I’ve been here the whole time, and because when I took over in 2020, we obviously had massive change, and so for me, this has been a completely different chapter. That 2016 group is so special, and to be able to see those guys both in January and to see them again this summer, and to know that they’re going to be honored, is really gratifying because that group, not only were they a great team, but they also had to overcome, like, a citywide angst. And so I think there is something there where they had to be able to do something that people didn’t think was possible or didn’t think could be done. They deserve to be celebrated.

Q: If you guys were bad, there would be a much different vibe.

A: I know. I remember going back with Theo (Epstein) for the 2004 reunion in Boston. It was a 10-year anniversary of the ’04 team and we had not turned the corner here yet, and I actually found it unbelievably motivating.

Q: When he comes in this summer, do you think Theo’s going to get the inspiration to go back to work?

A: It’s good to be Theo right now.

Q: I bet he misses being miserable doing this job.

A: No, he doesn’t. He can call me, or he can get a little bit involved with the Red Sox if he wants to, but I think he’s really happy, and I think he’s stimulated enough by what he’s doing. He’s in a good place.

Q: So I’ve got to make my prediction for your record this season. Do you have one for me?

A: No, I’ve never done that. But you tried it again.