On Monday, the Chicago Cubs agreed to terms with free agent manager Craig Counsell on a long-term contract that will make him the highest-paid skipper in the league. Counsell, the Milwaukee Brewers manager for the last nine seasons, will now move elsewhere within the National League Central to replace Chicago’s incumbent skipper David Ross. (Ross, since fired, had been under contract through the 2024 season.)
In addition to the Cubs, Counsell had been sought after by a number of other clubs. The incumbent Brewers, New York Mets, and Cleveland Guardians were known to have interest. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if more teams — including those who already had managers — at least considered making a run at Counsell.
You might wonder, just what makes Counsell such a desired figure? Below, CBS Sports has highlighted three factors that contribute to his standing.
1. Proven track record
Figuring out who will and will not succeed as a manager is a difficult task. That’s in part because managers are victims of circumstance, almost always judged on results dictated by variables outside of their control. No one would have mistaken Terry Francona for a future Hall of Fame skipper during his days with the Philadelphia Phillies. Now, following successful stints with the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Guardians? It seems far more likely.
Contrariwise, Joe Maddon didn’t look like a genius with the Los Angeles Angels after previously guiding the Cubs and the Tampa Bay Rays to glory behind a blend of quirky antics and bleeding edge tactical methods.
The availability heuristic dictates that teams are most inclined to trust proven quantities. If a pitcher has succeeded as a closer, they’re deemed to have the proper mentality to flourish in that role. By the same token, if a manager has nearly a decade of winning under their belt, they’re probably good at the job. It’s surface-level analysis, but it creates a (potentially false) sense of security.
With that in mind, we’ll note that Counsell has a substantive track record. In those nine seasons with the Brewers, he won 53.1% of his regular season contests. (He also led the Brewers to the playoffs in five of those attempts, albeit while going 7-12 in October.) While a 53% winning percentage doesn’t sound super impressive — it translates to an 86-win season — keep in mind that it’s hard to maintain that kind of rate over a large sample. Indeed, it’s a better winning percentage than those possessed by Bruce Bochy, Bob Melvin, and almost all of the game’s other top skippers not named Dave Roberts.
2. Does more with less
Another point in Counsell’s favor is the perception that he’s posted those results without being handed a top-tier roster. Oftentimes, that’s a shorthand way of writing “their team didn’t spend money.” It’s true here. The Brewers ranked better than 19th in Opening Day payroll once during Counsell’s tenure, and in that outlier year they ranked … 17th. Big spenders, they were not.
The surest way to catch the eye of other teams is to demonstrate that you can succeed without needing to spend money. After all, what could be a sweeter promise to an owner trying their darndest to save up for a new yacht?
Counsell certainly has proved that he doesn’t need marquee free-agent signings or splashy trade acquisitions to clinch a playoff berth.
Granted, there is a chicken-or-egg dynamic at play. How much credit does Counsell deserve? Would some of Milwaukee’s unheralded pitchers — the Joel Payamps and Hoby Milners of the world — have succeeded without Counsell? How much of their usage was dictated by him, versus how much was dictated by the front office, or perhaps even the pitching coach?
It’s a fair line of questioning, one that us outsiders are not particularly well-suited to answer. That leads us to our third and final point.
3. Works well with clubhouse, front office
As fun as it is to evaluate managers based on what they seem to do on the field — the pitching changes and pinch-hit decisions and challenge requests — their most important work happens behind closed doors.
These days, more so than ever, they have to serve as a conduit between the club’s front office and their clubhouse. It’s their job to get the players on board with all the bold, newfangled ideas and strategies that the research department has in mind. It’s also their job to put out fires when those newfangled ideas and strategies annoy or offend the players in question, and to do the same when one of those newfangled ideas and strategies doesn’t seem employable.
If any/all of that sounds like a headache — well, it is. There are a lot of egos and personalities to manage in a big-league clubhouse, let alone when the front-office types get involved. Counsell appears to be able to relate to everyone, while also having the even-keeled personality needed to keep them on the same page and centered during a 162-game season.
Counsell also seems to have a good feel for what will or won’t work, and a willingness to express his perspective and push back as he sees fit.
“One of the reasons I’ve enjoyed working with Craig so much is that he has the ability to question everything that he does and that we do as an organization,” former Brewers boss David Stearns told the New York Times a few years back. “And through active questioning and discussion, he has naturally grown and altered his opinions on certain aspects of how he goes about it. But the general tenets of what he believes and strives to do is put players in the best position to succeed. That has been constant since day one.”
None of this guarantees that Counsell will lead the Cubs to the promised land. But, if you were building the ideal manager on paper, they would probably have a lot of the demonstrated traits and qualities that he seems to possess.