Cubs promote Martin to farm director
LAS VEGAS — The Cubs didn’t wait long to fill their farm director position.
After Jason Kanzler’s departure last week to take the Seattle Mariners manager job, the Cubs have promoted Ben Martin to the role. Martin, 29, spent the 2026 season on the Cubs coaching staff as assistant director of major-league development, working closely with hitters, especially third baseman Alex Bregman.
“He’s obsessed the same way I am,” Bregman said of Martin in September. “He thinks about it 24/7 the same way I do, and he obsesses over it like I do. We just want to be in a good position every single day to put our best foot forward on the field and drive the baseball consistently and just working toward a common goal.”
The Cubs were dealt two key losses in a short span with Kanzler’s hiring in Seattle and assistant general manager Jared Banner landing the Baltimore Orioles GM opening.
The Cubs had a lot to juggle, particularly once Kanzler left. He was the “heir apparent,” as GM Carter Hawkins described it Tuesday, to Banner’s AGM role, “so we kind of had a double hit there from a succession planning perspective.” Hawkins said nothing is active right now to fill Banner’s job.
Hawkins flew to Arizona late last week to meet with the organization’s player development staff and go through the changes.
“He’s extremely smart, extremely driven and extremely willing to do what he needs to do to help a team win,” Hawkins said of Martin on Tuesday. “And when I think about a farm director, those types of qualities stand out and so I don’t think we’re going to miss a beat.
“Ben’s exceptional, and we have a lot of great leaders and player development around him to help in that space. Now, it’s true we’ve lost some firepower in our front office, and we’ll be looking to continue to both have people that are currently here step up and also continue to look externally to see if there’s ways that we can make ourselves better.
“But feel good about Ben and really excited for Jared and for Jason. Great opportunities.”
Martin has held a variety of titles since he joined the organization in 2021. He worked as a development coach for Low-A Myrtle Beach that year, then shifted into a front-office position in 2022 as a research and development hitting analyst.
During the 2023 season, Martin served as the Arizona Complex League hitting coach, and he changed roles again in 2024 when he was the Cubs’ Dominican Republic academy field coordinator.
Bregman gave Martin a lot of credit for helping him work through early-season struggles that saw the slugger go from a .241/.336/.359 slash line with nine home runs and a .696 OPS in the first half to a .303/.384/.626 line, 19 homers and a 1.010 OPS in the second half.
When Martin was asked in August about his future career path, whether he envisioned himself going the hitting coach route or perhaps becoming more of a behind-the-scenes front-office type, he said he wasn’t sure.
“I honestly haven’t thought much about it,” he said. “I’ve obviously done a bunch of different things to this point, and I feel like every year has been a pretty big change. And I don’t think any of those changes are like, ‘Oh, I want to do this because I want to do this in the future.’
“It’s just I want to win. That’s always been my big thing is I want to have an impact on a team that wins the World Series over and over and over, and (I’m) just kind of relying on everyone else in the (organization) to decide what that is and what the best fit is.”