Four days after the Chicago Cubs’ season ended in the National League Division Series, team President Jed Hoyer reflected.
Hoyer, during his annual end-of-season news conference Wednesday at Wrigley Field, described how proud he felt of the team with its consistency, effort and connection to the fans while also acknowledging that the Cubs’ loss in the decisive Game 5 in the NLDS to the Milwaukee Brewers still stings.
“You spend time thinking about plays and pitches and at-bats, and I think that whenever you get into the playoffs, you start moving forward and you have elimination games, that’s the kind of natural emotion is to think about the last thing that happened,” Hoyer said. “And obviously that was disappointing, and so we didn’t reach all of our goals.
“We have a real foundation to keep building from, so obviously I’m disappointed now. It’d be impossible to play that elimination game and how close the margins are, it’d be impossible to not have disappointment from falling short of the ultimate goal. But I am really proud of this group and proud of our season.”
The entire coaching staff has been asked to return for 2026, though Hoyer acknowledged they might have openings to fill if any coaches get any opportunity to be promoted by another organization. Bench coach Ryan Flaherty reportedly is being considered for managerial openings in San Diego and Baltimore.
As the organization digests the 92-win season and first division series appearance since 2017, Hoyer and the Cubs front office know they must build off this year and not let it be a one-off playoff appearance. The steps they take to ensure that happens will become more clear in the ensuing weeks as their offseason roster-building plans start to come into focus.
With the Cubs shifting into offseason mode, here are four takeaways from Hoyer’s nearly hourlong news conference.
1. With Kyle Tucker’s uncertain Cubs future, replacing production a must
Hoyer never likes to get into the contract talks, especially in regards to an impending free agent. But with Tucker set to go through the free-agent process this offseason, Hoyer said the team will talk with Tucker’s agency and reiterated: “Everyone can use a guy like Kyle Tucker. Everyone gets better by having a player like that.”
“I do think when we were at our best, Kyle was at his best and vice versa, there’s no question he had a huge impact on his team,” Hoyer said. “Obviously he had dealt with some injuries and struggled a bit in the second half. But when we take the totality of the season, he had a huge impact, as we hoped he would.”
Asked whether the Cubs have a sense of what Tucker will be looking for during the free-agent process and, more broadly, for the rest of his career, Hoyer deflected and noted how Tucker enjoyed playing in Chicago and the experience of playing at Wrigley Field.
“Kyle has a big decision, he’s earned the right to not only be a free agent but to be a coveted free agent,” Hoyer said. “And so I would expect that they’ll play their cards kind of close to the vest, but I know he had a good experience.”
Hoyer didn’t want to delve specifically into the approach the Cubs must take to replace Tucker if he does not return, instead pointing more broadly to needing to figure out how to fill the offensive void.
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“There’s no question that if you don’t retain a player of his caliber, then we have to replace those wins and that WAR in some other ways, and I think that’s something we’ll be really focused on,” Hoyer said. “But I don’t how you do that. It can take many different shapes and forms.”
If the Cubs choose to take a potentially more risky approach of plugging in younger upside bats such as Moises Ballesteros and Owen Caissie at DH and right field, respectively, to mix in with Seiya Suzuki, it invites more unknowns into what the offense could look like in 2026 versus what they expected to see by adding Tucker and his proven approach and slug to the lineup this year.
“You have to have good young players, those are the guys that have real upside that can surprise you and have great years, even beyond projections, and so I consider Moises and Owen in that group,” Hoyer said. “I think their futures are really bright.
2. Cubs will explore extensions while next year could be last run for this core
If Hoyer has his way, nothing will get out about any contract-extension talks the Cubs have this offseason, unlike what occurred earlier in the season with the team and All-Star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Hoyer confirmed the Cubs plan to have conversations with players they would love to keep long term. Although Hoyer didn’t mention any players by name, Crow-Armstrong, first baseman Matt Busch and rookie right-hander Cade Horton make the most sense among their pre-arbitration-eligible players.
“My hope and expectation is that we’ll have extension talks with a number of our players this offseason, my hope and expectations are you never find out about it, that’s kind of what I would say,” Hoyer said with a grin. “We have clean books going forward, we have good players, and we’ll have those conversations.”
The Cubs currently have approximately only $31.5 million in guaranteed money on their 2027 payroll: Dansby Swanson’s $28 million and buyout figures for catcher Carson Kelly and left-hander Matthew Boyd if their ’27 options are declined. That payroll figure does not include players who will be arbitration-eligible, such as Busch and Crow-Armstrong. But it highlights the vast financial flexibility the Cubs will possess after next season.
And that is not a coincidence. Most of the Cubs’ multiyear contracts were aligned to end after the 2026 season when Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement also expires. The long-term unknowns that come with the lack of a CBA for 2027 and beyond creates some unknowns on how the Cubs will approach giving multiyear deals in free agency this offseason.
“As we get closer to the end of the CBA, that conversation probably gets louder and louder,” Hoyer said. “But the truth of the matter is, we don’t know what the future holds in that regard, and certainly those decisions are going to happen well above me, and those conversations will happen for a long time. So I think you can pay attention to it. It’s something that you have to consider. But also we don’t know what’s going to happen, and there’s real uncertainty there for us and for 29 other teams.”
Given that reality, 2026 is setting up to be the last run with this core group: Ian Happ, Nico Hoerner, Suzuki and Jameson Taillon all will be free agents after next season.
3. Hoyer praises manager Craig Counsell’s ‘terrific’ year
Year 2 under Counsell saw the Cubs return to the postseason for the first time since 2020 and make their deepest run since 2017. Although they still fell short of winning a division title, something they haven’t done in a full season in eight years, Hoyer commended Counsell’s performance, calling it a terrific year.
Hoyer was particularly pleased with how Counsell deployed the bullpen. Multiple relievers expressed gratitude during exit interviews for the way Counsell cared about their workloads and found them the right pocket of matchups.
“He did a really good job not pushing those guys too hard, and that’s a difficult thing to do,” Hoyer said. “We play a lot of close games, we’re in a lot of games and whenever I would look during the course of the year, we’d have no one in the top 20 in appearances in baseball. So he didn’t push those guys too hard, and I think that takes real experience to know the length of season. You’re trying to win every game, you’re not trying to win every game at all costs. And that’s a really difficult thing to do.”
The Cubs will be challenged to replicate such a dominant year by a bullpen that carried them during stretches of the offense’s second-half inconsistency and a banged-up rotation. Three of their top high-leverage relievers — Drew Pomeranz, Brad Keller and Caleb Thielbar, who combined for a 2.28 ERA in 192 appearances over 177 1/3 innings — are all free agents.
4. Unclear whether payroll will increase or decrease for 2026
The Cubs payroll ranked 11th in the majors this year — they spent approximately $227 million on the roster.
Whether Hoyer and the front office will be operating with a similar budget isn’t clear. He didn’t want to speculate since the Cubs haven’t held those meetings yet in which ownership guides the direction the team takes on that front.
“We’ll sit down over the next two or three weeks and go through that, but, yeah, I’m confident that we’re going to have enough money to field a good team,” Hoyer said. “That’s the simplest thing I’ll say. But as far as details, I don’t know yet.”
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