Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Jed Hoyer talks Cubs' struggles, Pete Crow-Armstrong's vulgar comment
20 May 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This hour is brought to you by Menards, everybody.
Save big money at Menards. I don't act like this is a small task. I know this is an incredibly big challenge, but that's part of the fun. If it wasn't that, I certainly wouldn't be here.
My job is to do what I think is the right thing for the health of this franchise, and I want to make sure that we can build that next great Cubs team. I think the world of him as a manager, actually this thought, players love playing for him. I think he gets the most out of his teams, and he does it in an incredibly balanced manner. I think you see the same person every day, which is wonderful.
World Series champion general manager. Here we go, Montgomery's pitch. A little bouncer slowly toward Bryant. He will glove it toward Arizzo. It's in time. And the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. Jed Hoyer with Rahimi Harrison-Grote. I will let you guys ask any questions. On 104.3 The Score.
Jed Hoyer, the Cubs president of baseball operations, joining us now on Rahimi Harrison-Grote on 104.3 The Score. Jed, thanks for coming on with us today.
No problem. How you guys doing?
We're good. I did not know that Hurricane was going to be your introductory music, so I'm a little taken aback by that, but if you're good with it, we are too.
You guys can do whatever you want.
uh we unfortunately our timing is not ideal when we're talking to you after two losses to the brewers and uh a setback with crosstown take losing two out of three that emotional game on sunday drew it out of everybody i think what is what is your mindset and your opinion of just what you saw from your team over those last two series so far yeah i know we haven't played very well for the last 10 games i think that's uh
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Chapter 2: What recent struggles are the Cubs facing?
Cubs fans have their own agenda when it comes to understanding the injuries that are placed in front of you. And even though we're still far away from the trade deadline, we have seen teams go out before the deadline aggressively and try to get somebody they need. But what is what's the mindset behind the apprehension, especially in this market?
And then also, you know, just what are the flip sides? What's the risk management you do in a thought process like that?
Yeah, no, that's a good question. I think, you know, of the sports, you know, baseball is the one where you're starting in April. People start talking about the trade deadline. It's sort of a I think it's. the nature of how the sport is covered, you know, that people feel like you can always go out and get replacements externally.
You know, the reality is that, you know, we've had discussions with, with teams about, you know, candidly, you know, guys are probably struggling, excuse me, struggling with their teams. And, you know, there may be a buy low opportunity. We've had some of those discussions, you know, but the reality is that to go out and get someone that's pitching well, early in the season.
It's just not realistic. Look around baseball. For a team to sell a starting pitcher for prospects in this time of year is just unbelievably unusual. For the most part, teams would wait to get a higher price if they know they're going to sell, but I think there's a lot of teams right now that just simply don't know. Think back to 2023, we were going to be a seller until about July 20th.
We won 9 out of 10. And so teams look at it that way. And especially in the American League, where in the National League, it looks like it's going to take a fair number of wins to make the postseason. There's so many good teams in the National League. I think when you look at the American League, I mean, honestly, there's... a low win total could very easily sneak into playoffs.
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Chapter 3: How does Jed Hoyer assess the team's performance over the last few games?
And so with that being the case, if you're five under six under eight under right now, you're certainly not feeling like you're out of the race by any means. And, and I say that, and I should add like, We're five or six games into an NFL season. It's so early that teams are just patient. And so that's really the reason why you don't see deals.
It's just not realistic that people are going to sell early. They only do in the most unusual of circumstances. So the early season is about internal replacements and about sales. you know, being creative and, you know, sometimes a deal comes around, but I think there's just, that's just the nature of how I guess how our sport is covered.
People focus on external stuff a lot and talk about a deadline already. And, you know, we're getting to the place where you have a better feel for it, but we're still not that close to it.
Well, and the reason I bring it up is, number one, I know it's not pitching, but the Luis Urias trade that happened previously did kind of break my brain a little bit and forced me to think about this stuff before the deadline. And then also, it was Justin Steele's update on social media when he told us about the reevaluation process and the setback he had, where I was thinking to myself, oh, man.
Like, does this affect you guys at the deadline? So it was me, I confess. But sometimes I wonder if those extenuating circumstances do change the thought a little bit.
Yeah, no question. I mean, I think we're like, you're always thinking about it. I think with Justin, you know, the hope going into the season certainly was that, you know, we put him on the 60 day IL. I think this is roughly when he would have been able to
to come off we were sort of thinking you know going into the season um we're sort of thinking early June which right now that would be a wonderful time to to get him back but obviously that didn't happen and we've had setbacks and I just think you know I say it every year like you go into you go into spring training you go into the season and you know it's going to happen differently than you anticipated right we didn't anticipate Cade being out for the year
Two games in, you didn't anticipate that Justin Steele stepped back given how he was pitching or Matt Boyd getting hurt playing with his kids. But it doesn't really matter. Ultimately, all that matters is you have to move forward and you have to do everything you can to find replacements. Sometimes those are external, but early in the season, they're usually internal.
And like I said, you have to hope that through the struggles and through the
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Chapter 4: What are the Cubs' plans regarding potential trades early in the season?
He shot those down quickly, and we had a rebuilding team that had given a guy $155 million to sort of put us to the next level, and so... we're probably a little bit more willing to, uh, listen to John on this than, uh, than most. And obviously John has his, has throwing issues. So feeling comfortable with his catcher was, was that much more important.
So, yeah, we ended up, um, you know, be on the phone directly with, uh, with David that night. And, um, we got the deal done and I do remember the part of the story I remember for myself as I got to the office the next day. Um, and, uh, you know, David agent was, was not happy. Um, he called me and he's a canal. He was really upset that we had, um, called David late.
And he kept on saying, you know, we, we didn't have a deal. He has a deal with, you know, he's where he's going to go to the Padres. I think we have a deal with him, you know? And there was a definitely not, um, you know, that way you, you do business. I've never done something like that. And, uh, In my career, we ended up signing a player directly. He kind of agreed to that deal with us.
The agent was upset. Obviously, we ended up ironing out that deal. Ryan Glykowski and I ironed out that deal the next day. And it's funny because I always think about, certainly, that is not how you sign players. You don't go around the agent and... But if we're honest, like, I think David, I think that was a fairly good life decision for David.
You know, playing here for two years, winning a World Series, ends up on Dancing with the Stars. The Cubs have certainly, I think it was any money he might have left on the table in our contract, I think he's made up for by now.
Well, so number one, you had to have some damage control, it sounds like. And then number two, have you ever thought about using the beer thumb up, thumb down method ever again when it came to any sort of negotiation?
No, I haven't heard the exact way they tell the story, but it was a fun night. I think that we were in great spirits. I think we were so excited to add John to the mix. I mean, I think we forget... It's not easy to sign that kind of free agent when you just won 74 games. You know, we were...
elated that he was you know coming our direction um we had a really fun night obviously dio and i knew john so well from our boston days so um and we know his agents incredibly well so i don't know exactly how he told the story but in my recollection it was a super fun night we had rossi on the phone a bunch of different times uh that night from from pub city and uh
My recollection was getting yelled at by the agent the next morning.
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