A smile broke throughout Craig Counsell’s face whereas placing on his pinstriped Chicago Cubs house jersey for the primary time.
“It feels good,” Counsell mentioned Monday at Wrigley Field.
The Counsell period is formally underway for the Cubs, who closed the e-book on David Ross’ tenure. Ross texted Counsell earlier than the information broke final week of Counsell’s five-year, $40 million deal, prompting Counsell to instantly name Ross.
“I’ve always had great respect for David,” Counsell mentioned. “That gave me the ultimate respect for David the way he handled the conversation. Part of this business is really difficult, it’s really cutthroat. And as a player I’ve lived it, David’s lived it, every player lives it every day. But I respect the heck out of David Ross.”
Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts spoke to Ross on Nov. 6 after President Jed Hoyer delivered the information at Ross’ house in Tallahassee, Fla.
“These decisions aren’t ever easy or to be taken lightly,” Ricketts advised the Tribune on Monday. “But Jed felt like getting Craig in here would get us to the next level, and I support that 100%.”
The focus has totally shifted to 2024 and past as Counsell appears to be like to get the Cubs again to the postseason, one thing they haven’t executed over a 162-game schedule since 2018.
“I wanted the challenge of this, all this,” Counsell mentioned Monday. “My hope is the stress to win in Chicago is simply the stress to win in Chicago. I don’t want any greater than that. That’s what it’s, that’s what it must be. We must be anticipated to win.
“It is time to be a Cub. There is momentum happening here and it feels close. And that means there’s a really exciting future ahead of us.”
Here are 4 issues we discovered throughout Counsell’s introduction.
1. Jed Hoyer’s imaginative and prescient for the Cubs’ future offered Counsell.
Counsell mentioned he joked with normal supervisor Carter Hawkins earlier than Monday’s information convention that he doesn’t know a lot concerning the Cubs.
The Cubs’ courtship of Counsell lasted lower than week from when Hoyer initiated contact Nov. 1, as soon as Counsell turned a free agent, to when the Cubs fired Ross and employed the longtime Brewers supervisor. The quick course of prevented Counsell, 53, from delving into finding out the group as he had for the New York Mets opening, for which he interviewed the day after his first dialog with Hoyer.
“I know enough about the city, the franchise, the history and just baseball in general that I know how it works,” Counsell mentioned.
As Hoyer recruited him, he offered Counsell on the well being of the group going ahead — particularly the present workforce, participant growth and the way the entrance workplace is constructed to equip gamers and supply good data to make the required selections.
“The excitement and where the franchise is at on a big-picture level, we’ve still got to get a lot of decisions right,” Counsell mentioned. “But it’s a extremely wholesome place to begin.
“There’s a lot of choices of how to do it, and that’s exciting that there’s several ways to attack the problem. It offers the ability for Jed to be very creative and use any one of those means to do so. In the end, it’s going to be some blend of all that that gets it done. … That gives him a really good chance at being right (and) of this being successful.”
2. Counsell might be deliberate in constructing his teaching employees.
One of Counsell’s first imprints on the group will come by the coaches he surrounds himself with.
Now that he’s in place as supervisor, it leaves the standing of Ross’ teaching employees in limbo. While some are anticipated to stay, what number of will return is unknown. There isn’t a selected time-frame for when Counsell needs to have his full employees in place.
He plans to be thorough in how he builds the group, and he anticipates it being a slower course of. He needs to higher perceive whom the Cubs have on employees and what they’re making an attempt to do with their teaching employees and its infrastructure — together with how the present coaches attempt assist gamers, how the knowledge that’s offered helps the gamers and the way that data is delivered. Getting to know the coaches as individuals can also be a part of the equation.
All of these aspects take time to work by.
“You spend enormous amounts of time with people in close quarters, and so you do get to know people really, really well,” Counsell mentioned. “There’s not many secrets and techniques at that time whenever you’re working that intently with individuals, and it’s simply vital to get to know individuals whenever you’re working in these conditions.
“I want to be deliberate because it’s important and I just need to do more homework is the best way to say it. I hadn’t done homework on the Cubs. I wasn’t prepared (for them to reach out), so it’s a place where I’m behind and I think making a quicker decision is a mistake in this situation.”
The Cubs already had two openings after asserting final month that bullpen coach Chris Young and recreation technique and catching coach Craig Driver wouldn’t return in 2024.
3. What Counsell’s hiring means to the Cubs’ method to free company.
The Cubs possess the monetary means to be among the many most aggressive groups in free company and go above the luxury-tax threshold if wanted.
Hiring Counsell is a transparent signal they’re in go mode for his or her aggressive window, although that doesn’t essentially portend the Cubs signing one of many marquee free brokers to a long-term contract this offseason. Hoyer famous final week on the normal managers conferences in Arizona that the Cubs are ready to take a wide range of paths to constructing their 2024 roster, and in the event that they signal or commerce for a giant title, it could be as a result of issues lined up for them.
“Free agency is fun, right? It’s fun to talk about, it’s fun to write about and it’s certainly on the table,” Counsell mentioned. “But the mission for Jed is what’s one of the simplest ways to construct one thing that may final for a very long time. And once I say the group’s in a wholesome place, my perspective of that’s he has all these choices on the desk to try this, however clearly free company can get you in quite a lot of bother.
“There’s certainly the options to do it, there’s the ability to talk about anything. Jed made that clear and that’s exciting, but how you build a team that is going to continually compete, it’s certainly going to take more than free agency and I think we all know that.”
Counsell is taken into account one of many main leagues’ greatest managers partially due to how he seemingly at all times will get essentially the most out of his roster. That didn’t go unnoticed by the Cubs entrance workplace and possession.
“Obviously he’s had really competitive teams in Milwaukee and done more with what looks like less in terms of on-paper talent,” Ricketts mentioned, “but ultimately also just that steady, consistent, coming-every-night-to-win-the-ballgame kind of attitude that you have to admire about him and we’ve respected about him for many years. And hopefully he brings that kind of attitude to Chicago and gets us to the next level.”
The Cubs roster might use extra star expertise, particularly in the midst of the lineup. Hoyer felt the Cubs left wins on the desk this yr, and Counsell is predicted to mitigate that difficulty. Infusing the big-league roster with extra expertise would assist too.
“I don’t think it really impacts what we do from a player personnel standpoint,” Ricketts mentioned of the Counsell rent. “Jed would go out and find the best players under any manager. Jed will do what’s right to give us the best chance to win on the field and will let Craig do what he can in the manager’s role to, like I said, get us to the next level.”
4. Counsell underestimated how Brewers followers would take his departure for a rival.
A frosty reception probably awaits Counsell throughout his first journey again to American Family Field on May 27-30, a minimum of from the Brewers followers amongst what usually features a robust Cubs contingent for collection in Milwaukee.
Counsell admitted final week was exhausting, and a part of that stemmed from underestimating how Brewers followers would take his leaving his hometown workforce and town he known as house for 15 of his 25 big-league seasons, together with the final 9 as Brewers supervisor.
Pivoting to the division-rival Cubs didn’t go over easily among the many Milwaukee trustworthy, highlighted by an indication being defaced at a Little League subject that bears Counsell’s title in suburban Whitefish Bay, the place he grew up.
“That was my miscalculation,” Counsell mentioned. “As time moves forward, I’m very proud of what happened in Milwaukee. I think our jobs are to provide a great experience for our fans. I think time will look favorably on what was accomplished during those nine years I was a manager there. It’s there and it’s real and I understand it, too, but I think time will help.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com