The Cubs are poaching more of Craig Counsell’s old friends to be the Brewers’ final coach

A year ago, the Chicago Cubs made the former unthinkable and poached Brewers of Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell will be their club manager from now on. Counsell signed a five-year, $40 million deal that would pay him an $8 million AAV while with the Cubs, more than double the $3.5 million salary he was paid in last year in Milwaukee in 2023.

What did all that money get Chicago in the first year? During his first season with the Cubs, Counsell’s team finished the season 83-79, good for 10 games behind the first-place Brewers and the postseason.

Counsell and the Cubs still have four years left on his contract to prove to the world that the manager made the right decision to leave for the Windy City. And in search of a World Series (and bragging rights to his former team), Counsell decided to return well to the Brewers for even more coaching help.

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Will Sammon, Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic recently reported that the Cubs are hiring yet another Brewers coach to join their staff in Quintin Berry.

“Chicago Cubs plan to hire Quintin Berry as their new third base coach,” they he wrote“adding a base running expert who previously worked with Craig Counsell and the Milwaukee Brewers.”

Berry previously worked with the Brewers as a first base coach. He was largely responsible for the aggressive but successful approach to base running that the Brewers have become notorious for and that a relatively sluggish Cubs team would like to import to Chicago.

Last offseason, the Cubs didn’t have much time, if any, to let Counsell pick a coaching staff around him that he felt comfortable with; that’s what happens when you have to wait until the end of a postseason to get your man. Instead, Counsell had to play the 2024 season with a staff composed mostly of former David Ross employees.

Now with a full season and offseason under his belt, Counsell will have better control of the staff around him heading into the 2025 season. It’s just one more reason why the Cubs will have no excuse not to be a playoff team next year. Their Front Office is set to be very aggressive in free agency this winter, they have a lot of moving pieces, and Counsell now has a full season with his new team under his belt. It’s time for the Cubs to get back to the postseason, as you’d expect a team to do when their manager is making $8 million a year.