CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs locked in president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer for the long term, agreeing to a multiyear contract extension on Monday.
The 51-year-old Hoyer's five-year contract was set to expire at the end of the season — his 14th with the Cubs. He was hired as general manager in 2011 and replaced Theo Epstein as president of baseball operations in 2020.
The announcement came hours before Chicago opened an important three-game series at NL Central rival Milwaukee. Led by All-Stars Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker, the Cubs were tied with the Brewers with a league-best 62-43 record.
In a statement, Hoyer said he's “so grateful” for the “trust and support” of the Ricketts family owners and called the Cubs “a special organization with an amazing fan base.”
"I’m excited to keep building on the momentum we have and to work with a terrific baseball operations staff to consistently deliver a championship-caliber team for this great city,” he said.
Chairman Tom Ricketts praised Hoyer and his staff for building “a healthy player development organization” and putting “an exciting, playoff contending team on the field.”
"We are looking forward to the rest of the season and to working with Jed for years to come,” he added.
Chicago is in position to make the playoffs for the first time since 2020. The Cubs had losing records in 2021 and 2022 before winning 83 games each of the next two seasons. They made a big jump this year thanks to an offseason trade with Houston for Tucker — who has an expiring contract — and the emergence of Crow-Armstrong as one of the game's top players.
“Jed feels young sometimes but his experience in this role and this job and being a president of baseball operations, he’s done it for a long time," manager Craig Counsell said in Milwaukee. "He’s not surprised by anything and he’s usually ahead of everything. That’s a really comforting feeling as an organization. Secondly, it’s the human level. Just how you’re treated. He’s treats people really well and the right way. In a work environment like this, it’s emotional. There’s emotional conversations. You can have an emotional conversation and know that you’ll be treated the right way is something that’s really important.”
Hoyer worked in Boston's front office from 2002 to 2009 before serving as San Diego's general manager from 2010 to 2011. He reunited in Chicago with Epstein, his old friend and boss with the Red Sox, and the two took the Cubs to historic heights.
Led by young sluggers Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo and veteran ace Jon Lester, Chicago made the playoffs five times in a six-year span from 2015 to 2020. The 2016 team captured the Cubs' first World Series championship since 1908, beating Cleveland in seven games. Chicago reached the NLCS the following year, but has not advanced in the postseason since that run.
Hoyer dismantled the championship nucleus prior to the 2021 trade deadline, sending Bryant to San Francisco, Rizzo to the New York Yankees and Javier Báez to the New York Mets. The Cubs acquired Crow-Armstrong from the Mets in the Báez deal.
Hoyer also pulled off a tandem of stunning moves prior to last season, when he fired former manager David Ross and lured Counsell from Milwaukee with a record five-year contract worth more than $40 million. It was reminiscent of the Cubs firing Rick Renteria following the 2014 season and replacing him with Joe Maddon.
“He was just very optimistic about the future and where the Cubs were headed," Counsell said. "He sold that really well and I believed him and I agreed with him. And he was right.”
AP freelance writer Rich Rovito in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
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FILE - Chicago Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer attends an NFL football game between the Chicago Bears and Washington Commanders, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kamil Krzaczynski, File)
Glenn Hall, a Hockey Hall of Famer whose ironman streak of 502 starts as a goaltender remains an NHL record, has died. He was 94.
Nicknamed “Mr. Goalie,” Hall worked to stop pucks at a time when players at his position were bare-faced, before masks of any kind became commonplace. He did it as well as just about anyone of his generation, which stretched from the days of the Original Six into the expansion era.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Blackhawks confirmed the team received word of Hall’s death from his family. A league historian in touch with Hall’s son, Pat, said Hall died at a hospital in Stony Plain, Alberta, on Wednesday.
A pioneer of the butterfly style of goaltending of dropping to his knees, Hall backstopped Chicago to the Stanley Cup in 1961. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs in 1968 with St. Louis when the Blues reached the final before losing to Montreal. He was the second of just six Conn Smythe winners from a team that did not hoist the Cup.
His run of more than 500 games in net is one of the most untouchable records in sports, given how the position has changed in the decades since. Second in history is Alec Connell with 257 from 1924-30.
“Glenn was sturdy, dependable and a spectacular talent in net,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “That record, set from 1955-56 to 1962-63, still stands, probably always will, and is almost unfathomable — especially when you consider he did it all without a mask.”
Counting the postseason, Hall started 552 games in a row.
Hall won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 1956 when playing for the Detroit Red Wings. After two seasons, he was sent to the Black Hawks along with legendary forward Ted Lindsay.
Hall earned two of his three Vezina Trophy honors as the league's top goalie with Chicago, in 1963 and '67. The Blues took him in the expansion draft when the NHL doubled from six teams to 12, and he helped them reach the final in each of their first three years of existence, while winning the Vezina again at age 37.
Hall was in net when Boston's Bobby Orr scored in overtime to win the Cup for the Bruins in 1970, a goal that's among the most famous in hockey history because of the flying through the air celebration that followed. He played one more season with St. Louis before retiring in 1971.
“His influence extended far beyond the crease," Blues chairman Tom Stillman said. “From the very beginning, he brought credibility, excellence, and heart to a new team and a new NHL market.”
A native of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Hall was a seven-time first-team NHL All-Star who had 407 wins and 84 shutouts in 906 regular-season games. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975, and his No. 1 was retired by Chicago in 1988.
Hall was chosen as one of the top 100 players in the league's first 100 years.
Blackhawks chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz called Hall an innovator and “one of the greatest and most influential goaltenders in the history of our sport and a cornerstone of our franchise.”
“We are grateful for his extraordinary contributions to hockey and to our club, and we will honor his memory today and always,” Wirtz said.
The Blackhawks paid tribute to Hall and former coach and general manager Bob Pulford with a moment of silence before Wednesday night’s game against St. Louis. Pulford died Monday.
A Hall highlight video was shown on the center-ice videoboard. The lights were turned off for the moment of silence, except for a spotlight on the No. 1 banner for Hall that hangs in the rafters at the United Center.
Fellow Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur, the league's leader in wins with 691 and games played with 1,266, posted a photo of the last time he saw Hall along with a remembrance of him.
“Glenn Hall was a legend, and I was a big fan of his,” Brodeur said on social media. “He set the standard for every goaltender who followed. His toughness and consistency defined what it meant to play.”
AP Sports Writer Jay Cohen in Chicago contributed to this report.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
FILE - Glenn Hall, second from left, stands with fellow former Chicago Blackhawks players Stan Mikita, former general manager Tommy Ivan, Bobby Hull, Bill Wirtz and Tony Esposito during a pre-game ceremony at the Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Ill., April 14, 1994. (AP Photo/Fred Jewell, File)
FILE - St. Louis Blues goalie Glenn Hall, top right, is pinned to his net waiting to make a save on a Montreal Canadians shot as Blues' Noel Picard (4) tries to block the puck while Canadiens' John Ferguson (22) and Ralph Backstorm wait for a rebound in the third period of their NHL hockey Stanley Cup game, May 5, 1968. (AP Photo/Fred Waters, File)
