Chicago Cubs made a brilliant decision with Craig Counsell

The Chicago Cubs shocked the world already this off-season. After a disappointing end to a great regular season, you knew they would make some big moves but nobody thought they’d make a manager switch.

David Ross is out and Craig Counsell is in. Yes, he left the Milwaukee Brewers to come on down to their biggest rival in the Chicago Cubs. This was an absolutely brilliant decision made by the North Siders as they are getting ready to embark on what they hope is a great 2024 season.

Counsell did a lot of great things with a handcuffed situation in Milwaukee. It may have seemed like he had this brilliant roster but they really didn’t. He got the most out of a group put together the right way but never supplemented.

They drafted, signed, and developed prospects well and they traded for Christian Yelich who didn’t cost them all that much at the time because the Miami Marlins were tearing it down. They never once pushed all their chips in and said “We’re going to win this year”.

The Chicago Cubs made a brilliant hire with Craig Counsell coming to town.

Their owner is so rich and they never spend a lot of money on big-time help. It is not the best situation for a manager and Counsell was elite at it there. The fact that he made it to an NLCS with that franchise is stunning and should be commended.

Now, Counsell is going to come to Chicago where there are significantly more resources to help him do the best job he can. He replaces David Ross who constantly put out terrible lineups and made bad in-game decisions.

Fans might have a hard time letting go of “Grandpa Rossi” because he was on the World Series championship team in 2016, he has a fun personality, and he was on a hit dancing TV show. None of those things help the team win in 2023.

Counsell is going to come in and clean up everything that the Cubs did sloppy. Negative WAR players won’t be in the lineup every day anymore. The best players will play and play a lot. The Brewers never signed guys like Seiya Suzuki, Cody Bellinger, or Dansby Swanson to big-time contracts.

With Jed Hoyer building the roster and Tom Ricketts spending tons of money, Counsell will be in a much better spot. He now manages a team that buys from the top of the shelf. Don’t be surprised if even more elite talent is added this off-season. There are plenty of options.

Despite the feelings for Ross, and he is a likable guy, this was absolutely the right decision. The entire industry wanted Counsell to come and manage their team and he chose Chicago. A top-five manager will be in the Wrigley Field home dugout.