The Chicago Cubs brought back a familiar face when they formally announced the hiring of David Ross as the team's next manager on Monday afternoon.
Ross beat out current Houston Astros bench coach Joe Espada–who also earned multiple interviews with the Cubs–for the job, which included a second round organized as a mock Spring Training speech.
Cubs president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer said that Ross impressed a full room of Cubs front office personnel (via Patrick Mooney of The Athletic):
“We felt like there would be more pressure if we had all the lockers filled, so we had our whole baseball front office come down,” Epstein said. “There was probably like 30, 35 people sitting around (the room).”
“It would be pretty funny if he put a full uni on,” Epstein said, “and everyone’s sitting around in Allbirds and jeans. But he did well. He got a standing ovation.
“He just kind of grabbed it by the throat,” Hoyer said. “With David, the people that have been around him a lot (know) that he has tremendous presence and charisma. And he has the ability to have a great time and also hold people accountable. It’s just so hard to find that. It’s not a teachable thing.”
“We put it to him,” Epstein said. “He dominated that day.”
Ross will have some lofty standards to live up to in his first season.
Outgoing manager Joe Maddon left town with the best winning percentage of any manager in franchise history in the live-ball era, and will also be remembered as the man who helped to deliver the team's first World Series title in 108 years.
However, Ross iterated during his introductory press conference on Monday that he is confident that his straightforward nature and relationships with the players will translate on the field and in the clubhouse.
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