The story of the 2023-24 offseason in Main League Baseball to date has been Craig Counsell’s resolution to depart his managerial publish with the Milwaukee Brewers in favor of the identical function with the Chicago Cubs.
Counsell’s contract with Milwaukee ended after this previous season, in order that he would wind up elsewhere wasn’t particularly shocking. What was a shock is that he landed with the Brewers’ chief NL Central rival who performs a mere 90 minutes down I-94. The rumors surrounding Counsell’s resolution had him seemingly reuniting with David Stearns with the Mets or maybe staying in Milwaukee. The Cubs, although, had been capable of land maybe the perfect supervisor in baseball by dismissing David Ross and making Counsell the highest-paid supervisor in MLB historical past.
Counsell leaves Milwaukee as the perfect supervisor in franchise historical past. His 707 wins leads all Brewers managers, and he additionally tops the franchise listing for many profession video games over .500 at 82. He is the longest-serving supervisor in Brewers historical past, and over these 9 seasons he loved a successful proportion of .531 regardless of small player-payroll budgets alongside the best way. As properly, Counsell led the Brewers to 3 division titles and 5 postseason appearances. In what turned out to be his closing 12 months, the Brewers went 92-70 and completed atop the NL Central standings.
So why would a Wisconsin native and beloved determine in Milwaukee go elsewhere, particularly to the Cubs? In a wide-ranging dialog with reporters, together with Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Counsell answered these questions and lots of extra. In the case of his thought course of and the chance {that a} as soon as beloved native son will now be a persona non grata in Milwaukee and environs, Counsell stated this:
“I believe as I used to be going via this course of, it turned clear that I wanted and wished a brand new skilled problem. On the identical time, look, I am grateful to be a part of this neighborhood. And that is going to proceed, hopefully, as a result of it has nothing to do with baseball, that a part of it. I am wanting ahead to being a part of a brand new neighborhood and hopefully affect our neighborhood properly, too. However as I went via it, it simply turned clear that I wanted a brand new problem.”
Perspective and gratitude apart, Counsell might be going to listen to vigorous boos when he makes considered one of his many annual journeys to American Familly Subject as Cubs supervisor. That is fairly a change for a supervisor who was supremely fashionable amongst Brewers partisans and had been for a very long time. Issues change, although, as Counsell, the Cubs, and the Brewers will now absolutely attest.
