Carter Hawkins discusses the Cubs' direction as trade deadline looms
Mike Mulligan and David Haugh were joined by Cubs general manager Carter Hawkins to discuss the state of the team and its direction as the trade deadline looms next Tuesday.
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00:00You know, we've heard so much and obviously we've watched some of the struggles and the
00:06return to baseball for the post-All-Star game.
00:12Did that poor homestand, did that set the course for the trade deadline?
00:17Did you already know what the course was or have things changed because of the last two
00:22series?
00:24Yeah, I mean, I think it would be short-sighted to think that, you know, one or two games
00:28or four games are going to necessarily set the course for the season.
00:34But I do think that each game gives us a little bit more information about, you know, just
00:37the value of wins now versus the value of wins in the future.
00:41And certainly, I think, you know, as Council has talked about and as Jed has talked about,
00:45you know, we put ourselves in a tougher position and not winning games doesn't necessarily
00:49help that.
00:51So Carter, when you look ahead, then, Jed said everything that you do before the trade
00:56deadline, at the trade deadline will be with 2025 in mind.
01:01If in fact the thought process is all about next season, how likely or how realistic is
01:07it to expect maybe one of the top prospects to come up for the final 55 games or so to
01:12get a good extended look, Canario, Matt Shaw, Owen Casey, somebody like that to see how
01:20they fare against Major League Pitching and begin the developmental process now?
01:24I think that's always a possibility and certainly something that we're always considering.
01:29There's a lot of variables that are super fun to talk about as it relates to that, but
01:34with roster status and things of that nature that come into play and, you know, obviously
01:38who's on our roster here come, you know, come August and September, but definitely not something
01:43that we're ruling out and 100%, you know, those guys, you know, have started to get
01:49themselves in the conversation.
01:50Obviously, Canario already has been up here and there are absolutely things we'll consider
01:55regardless of just where we are here come the next two months.
02:00How flummoxed are you or your group by the offensive woes, by the failure to kind of
02:12the struggle, let's say, to score runs?
02:16How does that impact you guys?
02:18Yeah, I wouldn't use the word flummoxed by any means.
02:22I would say, you know, certainly frustrated like everybody is that's certainly the guys
02:26on the field and, you know, the people in the stands that, you know, hey, we know we
02:30have that talent that we can certainly score more runs than we are.
02:34And it's frustrating that we haven't up to this point, feel like we can continue to try
02:38to work to get there.
02:40But it's baseball, you know, there's ups and downs and there's noise and there's hot streaks
02:45and there's cold streaks and we've had a longer cold streak and yeah, that's certainly
02:49been frustrating.
02:50Carter, there are credible reports that say that Jameson Tyone is the object of the desire
02:57of maybe the Red Sox, the Yankees, other teams.
03:00Can you help us understand the pros and cons of trading Tyone or even having those conversations?
03:07Because again, if everything is about next year, he gives you predictable solid starter
03:12at the top of your rotation.
03:14So I wonder about the wisdom of trading him at the same time, I suppose you always have
03:18to listen.
03:19Pros and cons for Jameson Tyone.
03:21Yeah, and I'm not sure how you how you define credible reports this time of year.
03:26There's a lot of really credible reports that are great or credible reports that aren't
03:30and it's always fascinating seeing what comes across the ticker and knowing what's absolutely
03:36fantasy and what's not.
03:38But yeah, I mean, this is a time of year that the transactions happen and anytime that transactions
03:44are happening, you should try to figure out how you can increase your side of the ledger.
03:48And that means you have to be open to all possibilities on both sides.
03:52And that's 100 percent something we're going to do.
03:55I think to dismiss any concept out of hand would be short sighted.
03:58If you think you're good at transactions, you should make transactions.
04:00If you think you're bad, you should do nothing.
04:02And we're certainly not thinking that we're bad here.
04:05So we're certainly not going to do nothing in terms of listening to all opportunities.
04:09When we spoke earlier, we talked about this idea of protecting some of the assets that
04:15you have.
04:16And we know that you guys are loaded in the minor league system.
04:19You got eight of the top 100 from from MLB Pipeline.
04:24I haven't looked at Baseball America, but the point is simply that you have a lot of
04:30really talented young players that that are on the way.
04:35And I this is a foolish question.
04:38But can you have too many?
04:40In other words, if you keep it, keep acquiring more and more, are you at some point getting
04:47to a point where you've got like sort of repeat blocked guys?
04:51I know this sounds insane, but at some point you have to start trading some of those guys.
04:57You know what I mean?
04:58Like I just being honest about.
04:59Yeah, I mean, so to to be a jerk, we would love to have more good players and less good
05:06players to not be a jerk.
05:09I would say, yeah, like up to this point, you know, we have not traded our or utilized
05:15our young prospects in either deals for other major leaguers or by other than Pete bringing
05:23them up to the major leagues to start, you know, basically utilizing their value.
05:26And as these guys are starting to get closer to, you know, double A, triple A, big leagues.
05:31And as we're getting into our window here, I think that's that's something that we have
05:35to start considering a little bit more.
05:37And, you know, we did not do that the last three off seasons by any means, but I think
05:41we're certainly getting closer to that.
05:43And yeah, definitely is, you know, we're trying to start really putting more value on the
05:48field here at Wrigley.
05:49And that's something we'll be considering.
05:50Joined by Cubs general manager Carter Hawkins, who is here for pause Chicago, whose mission
05:55is to build no kill communities to end overpopulation of homeless animals and to transform animal
06:01welfare.
06:02So Carter Hector Neris is somebody else that a lot of teams might be interested in talking
06:07to you about because of his experience and because of where you are in the standings.
06:12Just wonder.
06:13He also has a clause, as you well know, that if he has so many appearances, it triggers
06:17an option.
06:18He has 21 left, I think, before he hits that trigger.
06:21Does any of that come up or how much does that come up or is considered when considering
06:26whether or not to deal him, whether or not to pitch him?
06:30How does that factor in now for a season that seems lost?
06:33Yeah, I mean, I certainly wouldn't wouldn't agree with the last thing that you had there.
06:38But in terms of decisions that that we're making, you know, that's that's not a conversation
06:43that counts.
06:44And I or counts and jet are having around contract status as we're considering our lineups
06:48and our bullpen usage on a day to day basis.
06:52I think anybody with this acquired any players thinking about their contract status and what
06:56the effect of that is on their teams both now and in the future.
06:59And Hector's no different than any other pitcher that way.
07:02So, yeah, I mean, it's it's a part of Hector.
07:06It's a part of every pitcher.
07:07And I think that's just a general conversation that you have.
07:10I'm curious, how do you determine that you're entering your window?
07:13Is it the amount of of good young pitchers you have coming up?
07:16What what is the determining factor when you say that as you enter your window?
07:21Yeah, I mean, I think if you look at the marginal value of a win, right, not to get too technical,
07:27but if you're if you're a 72 win team and you're trying to add three wins, I'm not sure
07:32that's going to necessarily add much to the real reality of you making the playoffs or
07:37one in the World Series.
07:38But you get closer to those those playoff type teams is in terms of just what your true
07:43talent is, what your projected levels are, those wins start to really matter.
07:47And I think we're getting into that place.
07:48And that's exciting.
07:50It's certainly frustrating this year that up to this point, we have not played to our
07:53projections.
07:54But we feel like we should have good playoff caliber teams here for the next several years.
07:59And that means that the present becomes even more valuable.
08:02Were you more amused or annoyed at the suggestion of Justin Steele getting traded or being part
08:10of trade conversation?
08:11He was asked about it.
08:12It has been out there.
08:13But as you said, not all the reports are credible.
08:16Just wonder what your reaction was to that suggestion.
08:18Yeah, neither, I think it's the same thing that we're talking about, which is transactions
08:24are happening.
08:25Any opportunity you have to increase your side of the ledger, you should at least listen
08:29to and you know, that could be any player on your 26 man or 40 man or 180 man minor
08:34league roster.
08:35And so that's just the time of year.
08:37I mean, I would be surprised if not every single player that's providing any sort of
08:42major league value is asked about is not asked about over the course of the next week.
08:47It's just the nature of it.
08:48Some of those given the media, some of those don't, but it just it just happens.
08:53If we give you a list of like, let's say 10 transactions proposed, could you tell us
08:58which ones are credible?
09:02I'll tell you that probably nine of them are not.
09:05I can guarantee you that.
09:07You're looking ahead, Carter.
09:08We just talked about what's going on in the in the business of baseball and how the Athletic
09:13has a report this morning about MLB and the Players Association agreeing to alter the
09:18CBA so that the league can use a portion of its competitive balance tax proceeds to
09:23give teams that are losing money up to $15 million each because of all of the ways that
09:29RSNs and the decline of that has changed the financial structure for a lot of teams.
09:35How significant is that?
09:37And how will it affect potentially free agency in your eyes?
09:40Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit out of my purview and a little hard to say just exactly
09:46how significant, you know, those dollars are, what those dollars are and who they're
09:51going to.
09:52You know, I think any time money is coming into the system, it affects the economics
09:55of the system.
09:56But there's money in a lot of different places that are coming in that affect the supply
10:00and demand of free agency and all those other things.
10:03So yeah, I think it'll have an effect to what extent it does and how that compares to other
10:07effects that will be happening this offseason, I couldn't say.
10:11It's difficult to talk about a lot of the positives, but you've had a couple of really
10:18good positives.
10:19You know, Michael Bush is not only doing a really solid job with the bat, but he's improving
10:25defensively.
10:26Obviously, Shoda has exceeded any expectations that people may have had, maybe not you, but
10:33certainly most people when he was signed.
10:36There are some real bright spots here that we don't spend much time on.
10:41Yeah, I mean, we had, you know, basically two new additions to this team from last year's
10:49team that, you know, there's obviously Amante who got hurt, but, you know, and Nearest,
10:55but Bush and Imanaga are the two big ones that we came to and weren't on the team last
10:59year and they performed really, really well and helped us win more baseball games.
11:02So certainly excited about that, but figuring out how to put the whole picture together
11:07and win more games we have is the key and that's something that we're obviously thinking
11:11about every day and we've got to figure out how to get the guys that we have here already
11:15playing really well for next year and figure out what additions we can make to get it even
11:19better.
11:20I won't call it a lost season again, but if you are looking ahead to 2025, I'm just curious
11:25for the remainder of this season, what is Kyle Hendrick's role and if he is unlikely
11:32to be a part of the future, perhaps, does that affect the way that he is used?
11:37Yeah, and I would take one step back on, you know, some of Jeff's comments last week.
11:42You know, I think what he was saying was we're not going to do anything that only helps 24.
11:49So you know, it's not just looking towards 25, it's just trying to figure out how do
11:53we do things that don't only help 24 just with the position that we're in.
11:58With regards to Kyle, I mean, Kyle obviously is an absolute stalwart of the rotation of
12:02this club and represents so many unbelievable things about the Cubs and I think we're always
12:08going to have the opportunity for starting pitcher innings, I think any club does and
12:12we're ecstatic that he has been able to throw the ball the way that he has the last few
12:16weeks and it's just been an unbelievable thing to watch him, you know, fight through some
12:21adversity here over the course of the year at this point in his career and do it the
12:25way that he did it and it's, you know, I'll stop short of saying it's inspiring but it's
12:30pretty cool to see and, you know, he'll be a big part of the next couple months for sure.
12:35Is there anything that you look at this team and say we've got to get done, that we have
12:40to do this or that in order to make this season more successful?
12:44Yeah, we got to get better, we got to get better, we got to figure out how to score
12:49more runs, we got to figure out how to prevent more runs and, you know, there's a lot of
12:53ways to do that and, you know, that'll be our focus. It's not going to be a particular
12:57trade or particular type of run created or type of run saved, it's all over and trying
13:02to figure out that and if we do that we're going to be in a pretty good place.
13:06Carter, thanks a ton, it's great catching up with you, we appreciate it.
13:09Thanks Carter.
13:11Always, thanks fellas.