Cubs All Access | Behind the Scenes of the 2024 Offseason

This is uh, this is pretty cool. Actually, this is really cool to have everybody in the same room to kick this thing off. Kind of fires me up, man. That's awesome. Jed, take it away. That's awesome. Thanks, Kevin. We talked about just how cool it is to be in a big big clubhouse and yeah, I've done this for a long time as well and I feel the same way that, you know, it never gets old. You guys are the talent. You guys are why we're all here. It does matter that you're a club. I mean, it's a special place. It's a privilege. It's an honor. It's an amazing thing that all of us get to be associated with something that means so much to so many people. Just treat it with respect. It's going to be an awesome season. We should win this division but everybody's got to work really hard to get there and I hope you guys are ready for it. So, that's it. Players, we'll take care of you on the schedule today. We're taking over the whole complex today with lives going on and everything. So, coaches will help you at stretch. Know where you want to be. Ask a coach if you don't know. Let's have a great day. All right. Going to work at Wrigley is always just something that's been appealing. Just walking into the park even in the winter. Very few places in like sports stadiums and arenas like there's energy even though there's not a game going on. That's how I feel about walking into Wrigley. And then left this bar right here in the corner. Like mom's first apartment was like down this street. Like five blocks down the street you left. That was her first apartment. My wife Michelle was a teacher in Chicago. She actually took me to my first game at Wrigley. I was playing in the minor leagues. I had broken my leg. I was on crutches. She wanted to go to a game at Wrigley with her friends. I wasn't too happy with her to be honest with you because I was like walking up the grandstand in crutches to the back row. But you see the bleachers. It's a park. It makes you feel like a kid and it just feels like man this is the way it should be. This is the way it should be everywhere. Good. First five minutes over with and I'm fine. Yeah let's do it yeah. When you're starting out new somewhere you have to trust your instincts. You have to trust the people around you and the organization around you and that trust often leads to people going in the right direction. You walk into you know Wrigley today. You walk into a place that like you already know it demands your best. That is the challenge I have ahead of me. It's a big one. It takes time but it's the one that I have to get right. We couldn't think of a more impactful decision than making sure that we had the best leader that we could possibly find in Craig Council. If you put the two play on it's always going to be a reliever. It's going to be late in the game. Extra innings right. So it's relievers really that have done to me have to understand the two play. It's been really fun to have somebody that is as diligent as him, as assertive as him, but also as caring as him more than the next five years. Oh nice. So up on stage I'd like to introduce Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer. We have new Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga. Hey Chicago. What do you say? Cubs gonna win today. The team that gets stronger with me, the team that grows with me, I thought that would be the best fit for me. I've received so much support from these players. I'm still in the Major. Welcome to Chicago. We love you! I'm really grateful to everyone. I feel that we need to work on baseball with respect. Last year at WBC, I was the pitcher for the U.S. final, so I wanted to see it in person. But he's cute. For us, he's cute. To watch someone that's never really been in the States, come from an entirely different culture, into the most competitive league in the world, it's just an unreal adjustment that you have to make, but he's made a great first impression so far. I'm a gentleman. How are you? You like ramen? What kind of ramen? Shoyu ramen for me. Shoyu for me. In L.A., Pasadena, the last two years, there's a place called Sato Ramen House. I told Seiya, when we go this year, I take him, I take you too. Good? On me. You've learned a lot about assimilating to a new culture. That's something that Seiya's been able to teach us, and we've kind of been building the plane while flying it with him, and I'm really excited that we can make some of those adjustments and then apply them, not only to make Seiya's experience better moving forward, but Shota's experience better here. Last one, ball and glove. On your half. Thank you. So handsome. Thank you. You train, don't you? Yeah, I run a lot. Do you watch my pitchers? I do, I do. He's really good. Hendricks is really good. His catch ball is crazy. He's really gentle. He's as good as a Japanese Wakate. Do you have a run-throw? I don't have a run-throw. What's a run-throw pattern? It's when you hit the ball and then return it. We knew that he has the type of arm that can really help us this year and the next four years. So it's going to be fun over the course of the next 45 days to really get a sense of how his stuff plays. We're going to be good. They're going to sign a couple more players. Huh? They're going to get Belly. I hope so. They're going to get Belly. I hope so. Last question we were going to ask, you guys' thoughts on next season? Before we get to next year, we've got to re-sign Belly, so that's all I'm going to say. News breaking overnight that Cody Bellinger is back in a Cubs uniform. This is the guy that Cubs need at the center of their lineup if they're going to compete for the NFL Central. Joining us, we have Jed Hoyer, Cody Bellinger, and Scott Morris. Seeing all the reaction from your teammates, Danes, we just talked publicly to some of the other guys. What was your reaction to seeing all of that and how good did it feel to come back? Yeah, it was amazing. Everyone knew how great of a time I had last year and how just a great clubhouse that we had. Just the positive words that they were bringing was just great to hear. Obviously, I was super excited to get back here with them. I haven't heard from Danes since Saturday night, so it's been kind of nice. It didn't surprise me that there was so much desire to bring him back, but I think they wanted to bring back the player and I think they wanted to bring back the person, and I think that's wonderful. I feel like with a lot of the moves we were able to make, we've been able to create some great momentum. I think the balance of the veterans and the players that have just established themselves and then the players that are coming up and trying to establish themselves, those things combined make it a really, really fun time to be a Cub and make me really excited about what's next for us.