The anger around Craig Counsell is easy to hear right now, especially with Cubs fans looking for someone to blame after September went sideways. But firing the manager is not the answer, and it would be foolish to pin what derailed the Cubs’ 2026 season on him alone.
That doesn’t mean Counsell has been everything the Cubs believed they were getting when they took him from the Milwaukee Brewers after the 2023 season. The bigger lesson from Milwaukee is that the Brewers’ success comes from the strength of the whole operation, not just the man in the dugout.
That’s why the idea that the Cubs should have hired Pat Murphy instead is off the mark. Murphy is a good manager, and it would even be fair to call him a great one, but the Brewers are not built around one voice in the dugout.
When the Cubs are winning, Counsell also doesn’t tend to get the kind of public credit that would match the noise now. And the complaints about his job performance ignore the roster and injury mess he’s had to manage.
Over the last two seasons, he has lost the ace of his rotation in April. Justin Steele still has not returned from injury, and Cade Horton is likely to miss most, if not all, of the 2027 season. Add in the other rotation injuries Counsell has dealt with this year, and it’s remarkable the Cubs were even in position to matter in September, much less carrying a 96% chance of making the playoffs.
The bullpen has been another source of frustration for fans, but that issue belongs higher up the chain. Counsell can only work with the arms he has, and the Cubs simply do not have an established closer or, to be blunt, an established setup man. That’s Jed Hoyer’s problem.
Counsell does lean on matchups, and that approach will always bring some risk. Sometimes it pays off.
Sometimes it doesn’t. Baseball leaves room for both outcomes, and it can put a rookie with limited experience into a high-leverage spot, like BJ Murray Jr. on Wednesday night.
Counsell has rarely made that kind of mistake a pattern, but when the rest of the team is spiraling, every move gets magnified.
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Cubs Failure To Catch Milwaukee Puts Jed Hoyer's Big Bets Under Fire
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Instead, the gap has only become harder to ignore, and the conversation around those moves has shifted from ambition to accountability. The bullpen spending in particular has drawn scrutiny because the results have not matched the investment, and the Cubs inability to keep pace with the Brewers has put Hoyers biggest bets under a brighter, less forgiving light as the season unfolds. [Read more 🡒]