Hoyer talks timeline for GM search, importance of diversity originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Cubs president Jed Hoyer expects to have more information this month on a timeline for the club’s general manager search and says it’s “very important” to consider diversity in the process.
“Probably in the next week to 10 days I’ll be able to announce something more formal on that to give a sense of a timeline,” Hoyer said Thursday on the Cubs Talk Podcast.
Six months ago, Theo Epstein, discussed his need to look inward and question his own decision-making in his hiring practices as baseball’s front offices have increasingly been filled with those with Ivy League backgrounds that “look a lot like” him. George Floyd's murder, and a surge of protests calling for racial justice, had begun to inspire a reckoning within Major League Baseball about its diversity issues.
MORE: Theo Epstein vows to 'look inward' for solutions to MLB's systemic racism
Hoyer, who took over for Epstein as team president last month, echoed Epstein's comments on Thursday. He reiterated his desire to hire someone with fresh ideas and also noted the tendency in baseball to have that goal but hire someone with similar experiences: "Maybe they have a few new ideas, but they ultimately are very similar to your background," he said.
Hoyer stressed the importance of not only hiring a candidate with different perspectives, but different experiences, too.
“I do think that having a real breadth of opinions and a real breadth of experiences, it leads to a better process and it leads to an office that looks a lot more like America than some front offices,” Hoyer said. “I was proud of (Epstein) that he admitted that, and I think he’s right.
“Certainly, it’s going to be a very important thing as we move forward to make sure we do have real breadth of experience and a breadth of people and not just a bunch of people that have similar backgrounds to me.”
The Cubs may already have missed out on the top general manager candidate, Kim Ng, whom the Marlins named their GM in November. Hoyer took over as president a few days after Miami announced their hiring.
MORE: How UChicago softball shaped Marlins GM Kim Ng, and vice versa
Ultimately, Hoyer wants to find the best candidates available and spend an appropriate amount of time making a decision.
"I think it’s the right idea to go outside the organization and fresh ideas are great and new perspectives are great," he said. "But with that comes a level of unknown, and I want to make sure that I can do the best search possible.
"There’s reasons to do that now. There’s also reasons to delay that and think about when the right time to do that is. I’m not really ready to say anything yet but those are the kind of things I’ve been weighing as I think through it.
“It’s a big decision and I want to make sure we do it thoughtfully and do it the right way.”
