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Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer brought up “star players” in his end-of-season press conference before any reporter referenced the term quite so directly.
“You guys have asked me a few times this year about, do we need a star ? — star players and stars can help get through those slumps,” he said last month.
Hoyer had just fielded a question about the team’s May and June skid this year and whether the Cubs have a hitter on the roster that can carry them through such stretches by minimizing his own offensive lulls, the way Cody Bellinger helped stabilize the Cubs offense in 2023.