When looking at the Chicago Cubs' 2023 season from afar, one could have been quite pleased by the overall progress they made. The team won nine more games than it did the previous year and boasted a National League Central-best +96 run-differential. The organization demanded drastic change, though.
A late-season collapse cost the Cubs a postseason spot and manager David Ross his job. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer quickly took aim at longtime Milwaukee Brewers skipper Craig Counsell to bring an air of consistency back to Wrigley Field. Chicago poached its former division foe from the Brew Crew and inked him to a historic managerial contract.
His arrival adds more expectations to a club that just re-signed Cody Bellinger and added Japanese starting pitcher Shota Imanaga in the offseason. But the players might not be wearing rose-colored glasses at the infancy of Counsell's tenure with the Cubs.
“This is going to be uncomfortable,” Hoyer recalled telling the team, according to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal. “He’s going to see things through a different lens. He’s going to want to do things differently. We have to embrace that. We have to embrace being uncomfortable.”
Craig Counsell helped establish a successful culture in Milwaukee that led to six postseason appearances in 10 years. With far more financial resources in Chicago, he will be expected to steer his new team into perennial relevancy. The clubhouse may have to adjust to his methods and ideologies, but his small-market mentality could work wonders in a big-budget environment.
The Cubs have not won a playoff game since 2017, so maybe it's alright to be a little “uncomfortable.”
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