Face time: Counsell, Cubs front office, players getting to know each other

So far, the Cubs have made only one notable off-season addition.

You won't see his name in any upcoming boxscores, and his last scouting report as a player came in 2011 when he was a 40-year-old utility infielder for the Brewers.

That doesn't mean Craig Counsell won't make an impact next season and beyond.

Hired in early November after agreeing to the largest contract for a manager (five years, $40 million) in MLB history, Counsell is still busy getting adjusted to the Cubs.

After spending the last 17 years in his hometown as a player, special assistant to the GM and manager for Milwaukee, it's been a pretty smooth transition.

Any bumps?

"Probably Monday, when I walked into the room and there was 30 new faces and I had to introduce myself to everybody," Counsell told reporters at the winter meetings in Nashville earlier this week.

"No, I think probably the most fun is just getting to know people, really. It's a lot of brand new relationships and important relationships. So it's just spending time, like face time with (president of baseball operations Jed (Hoyer) and (GM) Carter (Hawkins) and driving down to Wrigley once or so a week and just getting to know people."

Counsell is gradually getting to know the players he'll be guiding in the coming seasons. After managing in the same division with the Brewers the past nine years, he knows them from afar.

Now, it's time to get more personal.

"That's probably maybe the challenging part of this, just learning," Counsell said. "I think as a manager on the other side, you have a pretty good sense of the core of the big-league team. So moving yourself past the core of the big-league team to get to understand important prospects on the team, that's probably been the part that you spend some time learning.

"That's an important part because when you get to spring training, we're not making decisions on Dansby Swanson, but you are going to make decisions on some of those important players that are kind of knocking on the door. So getting a good feel for those players is almost more critical at this time of the year than the former."

While it has not been officially announced, Ryan Flaherty is going to be Counsell's bench coach.

Flaherty, who was drafted by the Cubs in 2008 out of Vanderbilt, was the Padres' bench coach last season.

"I didn't know Ryan well going into this search, but I've always had great respect for him," Counsell said. "He's done really good things quickly in his coaching career. He's earned an excellent reputation and he's been very good with players.

"I think that relationship that he has, it's really hard as you start coaching to kind of separate yourself as a coach and still be great with players, and I think Ryan has done an excellent job of that."