The Chicago Cubs ended the 2023 season in disappointing fashion and while David Ross is expected to return to manage the team in 2024, a few members of his coaching staff reportedly will not. According to New York Post baseball insider Jon Heyman, the Cubs are moving on from two coaches, both who have been alongside Ross since his first year managing the Cubs in 2020.
The Cubs are parting ways with game strategy coach Craig Driver and bullpen coach Chris Young.
Driver and Young were both hired away from the Philadelphia Phillies following the 2019 season.
Young was drafted by the Rockies in 2002 and after six seasons pitching in the minors (3.54 ERA in 409.1 innings) Young moved on to scouting. From 2010-14, he was a scout for the Padres and then spent the next three seasons with the Astros as a high level scout and scouting supervisor.
Young was an assistant pitching coach for the Phillies in 2018 and was then promoted to the team’s pitching coach in 2019. He was let go after the season following the firing of manager Gabe Kapler.
Driver was with the Phillies for two seasons before he joined Ross’ coaching staff to begin the 2020 season. After a few seasons as the catching coach and serving as the first base coach, Driver’s role changed to game strategy and catching coach, replacing Mike Borzello.
By the titles alone you kind of get the impression that both Young and Driver’s departures seem a tad bit scapegoat-y. Cubs fans all season long were perplexed by bullpen decisions and other in-game choices that ended up hurting the team. But we’ll never actually know how much input a guy like Driver had when you do have several coaches in the dugout talking with Ross every game. The same with Young, who was the bullpen coach in a season when the bullpen had an overall disappointing year.
At the bare minimum, the Cubs will at least be getting a few new voices in the room, which isn’t a bad thing either.
Meanwhile, Ross will enter 2024 with a team option to continue managing the Cubs in 2025. Both Tom Ricketts and Jed Hoyer praised Ross for his job in 2023, and because of that Ross is expected to come back in 2024. It’s obviously very early in the offseason for the Cubs, so we’ll see if there are any other coaching changes in the next few months.
