Cubs name Carter Hawkins next GM

CHICAGO -- When Jed Hoyer took over as the Cubs' president of baseball operations last year, leaving a vacancy in the general manager role, he made it clear that patience was crucial in order to identify the right hire for his former job.

After nearly a year, that process has come to a close, with Chicago announcing Friday that Carter Hawkins, a long-time part of Cleveland's front office, has been named the Cubs' new GM. The Cubs are planning to hold a press conference on Monday.

"I am thrilled to bring Carter into our organization," Hoyer said in a statement. "He has earned a fantastic reputation as a leader through hard work, open-mindedness, humility and intelligence. I enjoyed getting to know him throughout the interview process, and it quickly became clear that we share the same passion for team building.

"I look forward to partnering with him to build the next great Cubs team."

Hawkins has spent the past 14 years with Cleveland, which promoted him to assistant GM under GM Mike Chernoff and president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti following the 2016 season.

Prior to working in that role -- which touched on all aspects of baseball operations -- Hawkins oversaw Cleveland's player development department. He continued to play a key role in leading that area for Cleveland, which has gained a strong reputation throughout the Majors for development, especially on the pitching front.

Hawkins is a graduate of Vanderbilt and was a four-year letter winner for the Commodores baseball team.

Hoyer took over as the Cubs' top front-office executive after Theo Epstein stepped down after the 2020 season. Due to the complicated nature of the '20 campaign, Hoyer put the GM search on hold amidst travel restrictions and other issues presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

That left a void in the front-office structure, but Hoyer leaned on his internal team. That in-house leadership group includes Jason McLeod (senior vice president of player personnel), along with assistant GMs Randy Bush, Jeff Greenberg and Craig Breslow (also the vice president of pitching).

"I'm glad I have a really good staff around me," Hoyer said at the end of this past season. "I'm working through the GM search right now and I'm excited to sort of add a partner, bring someone in that can help me. But, I couldn't be more proud of the guys, with our staff."

According to The Athletic, the Cubs narrowed their GM search to four candidates, including Hawkins, James Harris (Cleveland's VP of player development), Carlos Rodriguez (Rays VP of player development and international scouting) and Jeremy Zoll (Twins assistant GM).

Hawkins joins a front-office group that is entering an important offseason for the Cubs' future direction.

A series of blockbuster deals at the Trade Deadline dismantled the club's core, but helped add a pile of prospects to Chicago's farm system. The Cubs' second-half spiral also netted the team the No. 7 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft.

With Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations coming this offseason, the Cubs will be positioned to react as they see fit with a drastic increase in payroll flexibility and prospect capital. Hoyer has insisted that he does not want to undertake a long rebuilding process.

"We thought we were going to be buyers up until probably three weeks before the Deadline," Hoyer said earlier this month. "We were able to kind of transition, pivot, and be able to make trades that I think are going to be really impactful for the future of the franchise.

"I was really proud of the way our office handled that. They were able to pick up a lot of slack this year, with Theo being gone, without sort of having a GM in place."