Chicago Cubs Add San Diego Padres Duo to Front Office

After securing the President of baseball operations spot, the Chicago Cubs announced further acquisitions Wednesday night in the form of San Diego Padres duo Jed Hoyer and Jason Mcleod who will join the front office.

Hoyer, the Padres general manager, will assume the title of executive vice president/general manager under Epstein, who was introduced Tuesday as the Cubs president of baseball operations. McLeod, an assistant GM with Hoyer in San Diego, has been hired as senior vice president/scouting and player development.

The Cubs have agreed to send the Padres a player to be named as compensation. The Padres intend to announce vice president of baseball operations Josh Byrnes as Hoyer’s successor.

In a joint statement on Wednesday night, the Cubs and Padres said they intend to hold press conferences to formally announce the hirings after the World Series. 

A major league source with knowledge of negotiations between the Cubs and Padres said compensation will come in the form of a lesser player than the one who will go to Boston as compensation for Epstein.

In his introductory press conference on Tuesday, Epstein would not say whether the Cubs would bring in a general manager.

“If we bring in someone as the general manager, it will be because it’s someone I think is one of the best and brightest in the game and can make a real impact for the Cubs,” Epstein said. “We have a ton of work to do. It’s going to be a lot of hard work. We’re ready for it. But the more impact front office personnel we have, more impact scouts that we have, more impact field staff that we have, the better and maybe the quicker the timetable for getting this thing right.

“If we ultimately hire a GM, it will be because we think it’s the right person for the job and that person will evolve into helping to run the major league team day-to-day. I’ll still ultimately run the baseball operations department, but it will free me up to get involved more in the big picture, it will free me up to get in the trenches with doing the work in scouting and player development to build that foundation for scouting and development.”

Byrnes and Hoyer worked with Epstein in Boston before moving to their next positions. Hoyer took over as Padres GM in 2010 after Kevin Towers was fired.

The 37-year-old Hoyer was a senior vice president and assistant GM to Epstein in Boston from 2005-09. He served as co-general manager with Ben Cherington for 44 days in 2005, when Epstein stepped away from the job while he negotiated a new deal with the Red Sox.

Hoyer joined the Red Sox in 2001 as an intern. He played baseball at Wesleyan University and was assistant coach there in 1999 and 2000.

Hoyer worked with Epstein on Boston player acquisitions, contract negotiations and player evaluations. His speciality was quantitative analysis, also known as sabermetrics. But he combined that with practical scouting, which he also helped direct.

McLeod’s expertise is in amateur scouting. He is given credit for stocking and fortifying the Red Sox farm system under the guidance of Epstein and Hoyer.