When former Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell was deemed available, teams like the New York Mets and Cleveland Guardians showed immediate interest. However, it was the Chicago Cubs who swept in and stole Counsell. The only elephant in the room was that the Cubs had to fire David Ross to hire Counsell.

President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said it wasn't an easy decision to fire Ross. However, the idea of signing Counsell was too good of an opportunity for Hoyer to pass up, via Jesse Rogers of ESPN.

“It just felt like an exceptionably hard decision but one that I felt like I had to make if the opportunity was there,” Hoyer said. “My job is to figure out how to win as many games as we can in the short-term and the long-term, and there was nothing about this move that I felt like didn't meet that criteria.

“This is no knock on Rossy, who I think incredibly high of, but Craig is at the very top of the game,” Hoyer said. “It's hard to rank managers but he's at the top of the game.

David Ross spent four years as the Cubs manager, compiling a 262-284 record. The 2023 season was actually his best, as Chicago picked up 83 wins. Craig Counsell was the Brewers manager since 2015. In all but three seasons – including the CO-VID shortened 2020 season – Milwaukee won at least 82 games under Counsell.

Jed Hoyer saw all the success the Brewers were having inside the NL Central. When he became available, Hoyer saw the first piece of the puzzle in Chicago's playoff push.