{"id":139555,"date":"2025-08-12T11:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T11:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/139555\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T11:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T11:37:11","slug":"chicago-cubs-slump-puts-heat-on-craig-counsell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/139555\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs slump puts heat on Craig Counsell"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jed Hoyer hired Craig Counsell as the Chicago Cubs manager after the 2023 season, he brought up Counsell\u2019s 2017 Milwaukee Brewers team that hung in the division race with the Cubs<\/a> until the final week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat team had no right to be there,\u201d Hoyer said. \u201cThey made us play to the last week of the season, and from a talent standpoint, that just wasn\u2019t close. That was probably the time we were like, \u2018What are they doing?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Counsell is now on the other side of the rivalry, but the Cubs are looking up at the first-place Brewers and once again asking the same old question:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are they doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither rain nor floods nor a paltry payroll can stop the Brewers, who entered Monday with a nine-game winning streak and six-game lead over the Cubs in the National League Central. With a week remaining before the teams\u2019 five-game showdown at Wrigley Field, the Brewers are threatening to run away with a division that was in the Cubs\u2019 hands almost the entire first half.<\/p>\n

Now we\u2019ll find out whether Counsell can keep the Cubs atop the wild-card race while trying to chip away at the deficit, starting Tuesday night in Toronto.<\/p>\n

If Counsell got a mulligan for 2024, the start of \u201825 looked like validation for Hoyer\u2019s stunning move. For four months his moves worked to near perfection, and the only question was who would start in the first playoff series after Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd.<\/p>\n

But the current mini slump (8-11 since July 20), combined with the Brewers\u2019 refusal to lose, has added pressure on Counsell to find a way back into the division race before it\u2019s too late. The Brewers have shown they can succeed without him.<\/a> Can Counsell\u2019s presence help the Cubs hang in the race, like it did with the \u201917 Brewers?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for clues on the Counsell Way, simply flash back to Aug. 2 at Wrigley Field, where Pete Crow-Armstrong stepped up to the plate against a left-hander with two on and two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the Cubs trailing the Baltimore Orioles by one run.<\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong struck out to end the game, and the next day Counsell was asked whether he considered pinch-hitting for his star center fielder with Justin Turner on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I\u2019ve got Pete Crow-Armstrong up there for a chance to tie the game, and I\u2019m not ready to change the at-bat right there,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong strikes out during the seventh inning against the Orioles on Aug. 2, 2025, at Wrigley Field. (Geoff Stellfox\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It was a valid response. Crow-Armstrong has been one of the Cubs\u2019 best hitters all year and was one of the main reasons for their first-half success<\/a>. No one could blame Counsell for giving him an opportunity to play the hero in front of a packed house at Wrigley, even if the percentages called for a right-handed hitter.<\/p>\n

But Counsell added he wouldn\u2019t hesitate to pinch-hit for Crow-Armstrong in the future, depending on the situation. That moment arrived Sunday night in St. Louis, with the Cubs trailing by one in the ninth and Crow-Armstrong leading off against a left-hander.<\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong was in a 2-for-30 slump in his last eight games with 13 strikeouts and no extra-base hits or RBIs. He also was hitting .193 against lefties, the biggest weakness in his game.<\/p>\n

So this time Counsell opted for Turner as a pinch hitter. It didn\u2019t work. Turner flied out, and though the Cubs had a scoring opportunity in the inning, they wound up losing 3-2<\/a> to fall six games back.<\/p>\n

Counsell naturally was skewered on social media, despite Crow-Armstrong\u2019s recent slump and overall numbers against lefties, for taking the bat out of the hands of his Most Valuable Player candidate.<\/p>\n

Whether it was the right decision or not, Counsell showed he\u2019s not afraid to make a tough call, knowing the reaction would be harsh if it didn\u2019t work. That\u2019s comforting to know because he\u2019ll have to make a lot of tough calls in the stretch run with a lineup that has sputtered since the All-Star break<\/a>, a rotation in flux due to injuries<\/a> and a bullpen that has done quite a bit of heavy lifting.<\/p>\n

The blowback against Counsell over the last couple of weeks has been amplified on sports-talk radio and social media, which is something we haven\u2019t really seen on the North Side since the Mike Quade era in 2011.<\/p>\n

Former managers Dale Sveum and Rick Renteria weren\u2019t blamed for all the losing in the rebuild years from 2012-14, and Joe Maddon was widely revered after making the NL Championship Series in his first year and ending the World Series title drought in his second.<\/p>\n

David Ross had his share of critics, but his previous role as the lovable \u201cGrandpa\u201d on the 2016 champs helped shield him from some blame for the late-season collapse from a wild-card spot in 2023. Obviously Hoyer felt otherwise<\/a>, which led to the cold-blooded firing of Ross and the signing of Counsell for a record $40 million over five years.<\/p>\n

Like a player with a huge contract, the expectations on Counsell to live up to his deal are immense. But he can do that only by winning, and now that the Cubs have hit a speed bump, whatever he did in the first half is deemed irrelevant.<\/p>\n

No one is feeling sorry for Counsell. He\u2019s paid handsomely because of his success doing things his way<\/a> in Milwaukee, as evidenced by the 2017 division race that Hoyer mentioned and the 2018 ending in which the Brewers beat the Cubs for the division title<\/a> in a Game 163 tiebreaker at Wrigley.<\/p>\n

Taking the heat is part of the gig, and Counsell has been at it long enough to know any manager will get some when his team goes from a 6\u00bd-game lead on June 17 to six games behind on Aug. 11. He couldn\u2019t be too happy with Hoyer\u2019s failure to add a frontline starter<\/a> at the trade deadline, but he said all the right things to the media afterward, even after Michael Soroka\u2019s injury<\/a> 31 pitches into his Cubs debut.<\/p>\n

A wild-card berth still would give the Cubs a chance at getting to the World Series, and they\u2019re in great position to be the top wild-card team. But the free fall from first place can\u2019t be forgotten.<\/p>\n

These final seven weeks of the regular season will make or break the Cubs \u2014 and perhaps serve as a referendum on Hoyer\u2019s decision to steal Counsell from Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

The Cubs are at the crossroads, and there\u2019s no turning back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Jed Hoyer hired Craig Counsell as the Chicago Cubs manager after the 2023 season, he brought up…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":139556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,1271,1816,83460,5386,1818,21891,38183,4247,79597,83459,1277],"class_list":{"0":"post-139555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-chicago-cubs","10":"tag-craig-counsell","11":"tag-david-ross","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-illinois","14":"tag-jed-hoyer","15":"tag-justin-turner","16":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","17":"tag-nl-central","18":"tag-nl-wild-card-race","19":"tag-pete-crow-armstrong"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}