Farewell, Jed Hoyer – Good Luck in Chicago

I’m sad. I really liked Jed Hoyer as Padres GM. I know a lot of Padres fans will disagree with me, but it really bums me out that he’s leaving. To catch you all up, here’s the latest.. when the Theo Epstein deal to the Cubs was first reported last week, it was widely assumed he’d take over as GM. I wrote about has this wouldn’t really affect Jed Hoyer and the Padres too much. Well, then it became knows that they wanted Theo in a high-level executive role, above the GM level. That was the game changer.

That’s when Theo went after Jed Hoyer to be the Cubs GM. This will all go down, presumably, some time today or tomorrow, but here’s the latest:

The Chicago Cubs are close to finalizing their hiring of Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, a source said. An announcement could come Friday.

Epstein would take a high-level executive role, above the GM level. He then is expected to hire Padres GM Jed Hoyer away from San Diego to serve as Cubs GM.

The Cubs’ deal with Epstein has been on hold as the team works out a compensation package with the Red Sox. Epstein has one year remaining on his contract in Boston.

If an agreement is reached, a press conference in Chicago could be held Friday, which is an off day for the World Series. MLB normally bars teams from making major announcements during the Fall Classic.

Despite the indications the deal is near fruition, Red Sox owner John Henry told the Boston Globe that a deal is “not close.”

The Red Sox are expected to promote assistant GM Ben Cherington to replace the 37-year-old Epstein, who became the youngest GM in major league history when he was hired by the team at age 28 in 2002.

Padres assistant general manager Jason McLeod also would join Epstein and Hoyer with Cubs, sources said. The Padres would receive no compensation. They, in turn, are expected to promote Josh Byrnes to GM.

Padres vice chairman Jeff Moorad hired Byrnes away from Boston to be the Diamondbacks’ GM in 2005, when Moorad was part of Arizona’s ownership group.

Boston broke an 86-year drought by winning the World Series two years later and went on to a second title in 2007.

The Cubs have not won the World Series since 1908, the longest drought in baseball.

So, there you have it. We’ll see how it all goes down soon. The Padres will be fine. Moorad loves Byrnes, and he seems to be a pretty bright guy. Should be a smooth transition too, since it’s an internal hire. Just sucks to see both Hoyer and McLeod taken from the Padres.

And for all the Padres fans all fired up at Jed. Calm the eff down. Jed did nothing wrong here. In my opinion… they came after him. He’s great friends with Epstein and if he can win a World Series, he’ll be the hero in Chicago and he’ll go down in the history books as the GM that broke the curse of the Billy Goat and Bartman and all that other crap. In my mind, if you’re a GM in MLB, and the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers or Cubs ask you to be their GM… you take the job. End of story.

Good luck, Jed.

-bp

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