Hoyer believes surging Cubs can be buyers, not sellers, at trade deadline
The Cubs are 10-5 in their last 15 games - with all five losses by 1 run - and have a chance to pull closer to the top in the NL Central when they visit St. Louis this weekend.
Except for the starting pitching, things are probably going better than expected for the Cubs, who beat Washington 5-2 on Thursday at Wrigley Field behind 2 home runs by Ian Happ.
The question that will follow this team for the next couple months is whether a good performance even matters. With Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Javy Baez in the final year of their contracts, a sell-off at the trade deadline might be inevitable.
The Cubs starting rotation would look a lot better if Yu Darvish was still around, but he was traded during the winter in an obvious move to lower the payroll. If the Cubs couldn't afford to keep Darvish, what hope do they have of re-signing Bryant, Rizzo or Bryant?
President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer addressed that topic on a Zoom call with reporters before Thursday's game.
"I think I've said to you guys before, I anticipate if we're in position to be a buyer that we'll have the budgetary flexibility to do that," Hoyer said. "Obviously, we'd love to continue to have those players going forward."
When the Cubs return to Wrigley Field on May 28, it will be with 60% capacity, which will add some revenue to the equation.
"Certainly I think having things potentially open up a little faster than we might have imagined can help us," Hoyer said. "As far as the budget for '22 and beyond, those are conversations we'll have to have as we get a feel for what we can anticipate next year."
Hoyer said there are no contract negotiations going on at the moment. There are likely to be conversations closer to the July trade deadline, but he'd prefer to keep those details quiet.
"I'm just trying to keep an open mind about this team and about the deadline," he said. "There's a lot of time - two months and 10 days. Of course you think about these different things.
"There's plenty of time before the trade deadline for things to happen. Rushing that decision doesn't seem prudent. Hopefully we continue to perform well and make that decision obvious and I think we should give it time to see that out."
In the top of the first inning, it looked like starting pitching might disappoint again. With the wind blowing out to left field, Trevor Williams gave up home runs to Josh Bell and Kyle Schwarber to fall behind 2-0.
But Williams kept it right there, and the Cubs bullpen extended a streak of 17 ⅓ scoreless innings. Cubs relievers haven't given up a run since the blown save in the 10th inning at Detroit last Saturday.
"As a pitcher, you can do everything you can. As soon as it leaves your hand, it's out of your control," Williams said. "I thought we executed most of our pitches today. The two homers, I thought were executed pitches. Given the wind blowing out, sometimes it's just not going to go your way."
Williams was one out away from completing five innings, but with a 4-2 lead and Juan Soto at the plate, manager David Ross decided to bring in Justin Steele to finish the frame.
"I think I'd be kicking myself up two and Soto hits a home run with as good a player he is and already seen Trevor twice," Ross said. "Just trying to nip that in the bud."
Steele rolled through the sixth inning and came back to the mound for the seventh, but left with hamstring tightness before throwing a pitch. Happ's 2-run homer in the third put the Cubs ahead to stay.
Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls