Despite the steps taken forward by the Cubs, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer found it hard to call the 2023 season a success.  

“Painfully, we did not finish the race. Certainly, there’s positives to take from the season, both organizationally and certainly positives to take from as a major league team,” Hoyer said in his end-of-season press conference. “But, right now, we’re sort of stuck thinking about what could have been and thinking about the painful last two and a half to three weeks. And you can’t call something that falls short of your goals a success.” 

Entering the season, most external outlets didn’t anticipate the Cubs making the playoffs but internally, the postseason was always the expectation, according to Hoyer. He was mainly impressed by the belief the players expressed during the year. 

“When we were 10 games under the middle of June, these guys still believed, and it was a pretty amazing thing from my seat to listen to them talk about how good they thought the team was when we were 10 games under,” Hoyer said. “In the middle of July, when we were after the All-Star break, we were 7 games under and these guys were begging me not to break the team up and begging me not to make trade, which is really impressive. These guys believed through all that, and they went on a heck of a run.” 

After the All-Star break, the Cubs became one of the hottest teams in baseball and put themselves in position for the NL postseason. But, a rough final three weeks, including going 1-5 against the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers, saw them miss out. 

The goal of making the playoffs was not achieved, and Hoyer says the Cubs will use it as motivation. 

“I know it’ll motivate me all winter and talking to our players and coaches and front office, I know it’s going to motivate them,” Hoyer said. “But you can’t define something as a success when you fall short.”

For the Hoyer’s full opening statement, check out the video above.