Jed got one of his rebuild trades very, very right

There were a lot of problems with Jed Hoyer's handling of the dismantling of what was left of the World Series core. He let Kyle Schwarber walk for nothing, bought out Jon Lester's final year option for $10 million and saw the Nats sign him for $5 million and then ended up having to pay Jake Arrieta $6 million to replace Lester and be absolutely terrible. And then we had to stomach watching Lester finish his career for the Cardinals after the Nats traded him there. All of this could have been avoided.

Jed wants credit for getting something for Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, but if he was so wise he and Theo would have traded Bryant a year earlier to presumably get something in return that would still be around (unlike what he did get which was Alexander Canario and Caleb Kilian, who aren't). Kevin Alcantara was the return for Rizzo and that might still turn into something. Kevin is finally hitting at Iowa this year after spending the early part of the season trying to see how hard he could swing while striking out.

Jed's handling of Willson Contreras was beyond mind-boggling. Willson didn't get traded at the 2021 deadline for unknown reasons, and was an All-Star in 2022, but he didn't get traded at that deadline either. A big part of that was his manager, David Ross badmouthing Willson's defense and undercutting his attempts at taking a leadership role on the team. Jed did eventually work out a trade for Willson to Houston for lefty pitcher Jose Urquidy, only to have Dusty Baker of all people, urge the Astros to not do the deal, mostly because he'd heard the nonsense Ross had been spewing. Just as well, the Cubs got basically nothing for Contreras when he left after the 2022 season (a comp after the second round), and Urquidy caught Tommy John Disease and hasn't pitched since 2023.

But mostly, what Jed cost us was fun. With the core gone and the team sucking, the Cubs were no fun to watch. Ian Happ is dull and plays dull. We were supposed to be charmed by rubber faced Frank Schwindel and the spunky underachiever career arc of Patrick Wisdom, I guess. Marcus Stroman was all weird training methods that fascinated nobody but Boog, and decent results on the mound. Trey Mancini seems like a great guy, but he was terrible for the Astros after they traded for him and even worse for the Cubs the next year.

But Jed got one trade right. It cost us the most fun Cub we'd seen in years, but incredibly, in return we got the next fun Cub.

It was really hard to see Javy Baez go. Javy did a lot of incredible things on the field for the Cubs, and he is just the best guy. We forgave his huge, wild swings at awful pitches because more often than not Javy's unconventional methods proved to be genius. He made tagging an art form. And he was somehow untaggable himself. He played incredible defense at three positions. He got big hits, was an NLCS MVP and nearly a National League MVP.

So when he left, it hurt.

Javy played well for the Mets right after the trade, got big money from the Tigers and things have gone horribly wrong. He's playing better this year, but he's in more of a superutility role now, playing short, third and center.

In order to get the guy the Cubs wanted from the Mets, it took two guys. Javy was traded with Trevor Williams (and, I guess Trevor's dad). And you have to give Jed credit. He got that trade completely right.

Because in exchange for our old favorite Cub, they got our new favorite Cub.

Petecrow Armstrong.