#Jed Hoyer

Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the swinging spot for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We're so glad you decided to finish out 2022 with us. Come on in out of the cold and ring in 2023. Although I'm not sure anyone wants to hang around with us for three days, it is the final After Dark of the year. There's no cover charge…

Free-agent shortstop Dansby Swanson and the Chicago Cubs have agreed to a seven-year, $177 million deal, major-league and team sources confirmed to The Athletic. ESPN's Jeff Passan was first to report the Cubs and Swanson were finalizing a deal. Here's what you need to know: Swanson hit.277 with 25 home runs and a career-high 96 RBIs in 162…

During the Winter Meetings we all got a big laugh at Jon Heyman tweeting that "Arson Judge" was heading to the San Francisco Giants. A much bigger story dropped at almost exactly the same time when Bradford William Davis reported on Dr. Meredith Wills' latest round of research for Insider, revealing that MLB used at least two (and possibly three)…

The Major League Baseball Draft is still seven months away and bonus pools aren't even set yet but an increase is expected to occur. The Pittsburgh Pirates landed the first pick via the inaugural draft lottery system taking place. The club had a 16.5 percent chance at landing the top selection. The Oakland Athletics came into the process with…

SAN FRANCISCO - The Cubs are selling again and open for business. And so are we. With the current state of the elite-revenue franchise ranging from work-in-progress to embarrassing, or even despicable, depending on your vantage point, it's time for a new line of more purge-appropriate team merch. So with a nod to a former Cubs manager who never met…

Free-agent catcher Willson Contreras is signing a five-year deal with the Cardinals, a league source confirmed to The Athletic on Wednesday. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal first reported news of the Cardinals closing in on an agreement with Contreras and ESPN's Jeff Passan first reported terms of the $87.5 million deal, which is pending a physical.…

MESA, Ariz. -- There is a lot of talk around the Cubs about striking that balance between contending now and building for the future. Manager David Ross has a more direct take on his goal for the coming campaign. "Winning. Making the playoffs. Getting to the World Series," Ross said at the start of Spring Training. "We're never going to stop…

LAS VEGAS - When the Phillies clawed back against the Padres to win Game 5 of the National League Championship Series and clinch a trip to the World Series, they sent a message to the rest of the majors. ''I think it shows you [that] if you get in and you play well, anything can happen,'' Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski…

One of the great observations of the Chicago baseball scene appeared several decades ago in a column by my former Chicago Tribune colleague Steve Daley. "Baseball has no offseason in Chicago," Daley wrote. "Interest only starts to wane when the teams start to play their games." That was long before the Cubs and White Sox ended their respective…