NEWSLETTER
The subject of David Ross’s managerial stewardship of the 2023 Chicago Cubs will be the subject of a great deal of scrutiny and debate in the weeks and months ahead.
For my part, I want to step back from the tremendous disappointment of the September collapse, and take some time to truly evaluate what we as outsiders can evaluate about Ross’s performance. That will take some thinking, but the TLDR version is that I think Ross gets a lot out of his players, managed the clubhouse stuff well, and assembled a great coaching staff; I think Ross’s in-game management was not as bad as some make it out to be, but there were absolutely clear mistakes made that, in my view, hurt the Cubs’ results. As you balance those scales, are the Cubs better or worse for having Ross in charge? I think that’s really hard to say from the outside, but I do think it’s a conversation worth having.
… not that I think Ross is in serious danger of actually losing his job.
There has simply never been a sense, subtle or otherwise, that Chicago Cubs President Jed Hoyer was concerned about Ross’s performance. Yes, there might be some philosophical differences about player usage or strategy here and there, but everything we’ve heard from Hoyer suggests he believes Ross is an excellent leader, putting his players in a position to succeed and getting the most out of them. I think he also still believes that Ross is developing as a manager, and getting better as he gets more experience. We’ll see soon enough if my sense of things is right. I just don’t feel like Ross is in serious danger of being canned by his boss.
But what about his boss’s boss?
Chicago Cubs Owner and Chairman Tom Rickets spoke with the media in Milwaukee today about, among other things, Ross’s performance as manager. His comments were definitely not subtle.
“I think Rossy did a great job,” Ricketts said, per the Sun-Times. “He creates a great clubhouse culture, the players love playing for him. He keeps a steady, balanced approach game in and game out, that you need over the course of 162 games …. I think Rossy had a great season, and the players play hard for him, and he’s our guy.”
Strictly speaking, Ricketts does not make the decision on who manages the Cubs, and I don’t think he would have dumped on Ross even if he did have misgivings about his performance. But I also think if Ricketts sensed there were any risk whatsoever of Ross being broomed, he would have guarded his comments more carefully. Those are the words of a guy who presumes, plainly, that Ross will be the manager of the Chicago Cubs in 2024.
There are two ways to think about that: either Ricketts already knows that Ross, who is under contract, is almost certainly going to be retained, or Ricketts is nudging Hoyer. Since we have yet to see Ricketts ever do the latter publicly on a baseball decision, I tend to think it’s the former. I think Ricketts appreciates Ross’s performance insofar as he has visibility to it, and I think he knows Ross is going to be retained by Hoyer.
There will still be a formal evaluation process with the front office, as there is each year for the coaching staff, but that might just be, well, a formality at this point. We’ll see soon enough.
Even if Ross is retained for 2024, I think everyone can agree that there will need to be some improvements that put the Cubs in a better shot to stay strong down the stretch (and also not needlessly give away outs in key games).
Ross, himself, has said there needs to be development and improvement.
“We’re in this together,” Ross said of the disappointing conclusion to the season, per The Athletic. “I wouldn’t separate myself from any player, front office, coach. If we don’t get to where we want to get to, I’m the head of the team. I’m the manager of this team. The blame should come on me first …. Disappointment, we can all feel that. I’ll soak that in and remember how that feels and use that this offseason to get better and continue to grow and come back next year and take another step forward.”
