The Chicago Cubs fired GM Jim Hendry today after nine years in the position and 17 years with the team.
“It’s professional baseball … if you don’t win enough games over a couple of years, you can’t fight change,” Hendry said in an emotional news conference at Wrigley Field. Assistant GM Randy Bush will take over the job on an interim basis, the team said Friday.
Hendry, 56, expressed that Cubs owner Tom Ricketts informed him on July 22 that he wouldn’t be retained, which he indicated was one factor that kept him from trading away veteran players at the trade deadline, leaving that decision to his successor.
“We’re here to win games, and in the last couple of years, we didn’t win enough,” Hendry said. “I will leave here with nothing but gratefulness for being part of this organization for 17 years. Not many people get a chance to do that.”
Hendry’s teams went 749-748 during his time as general manager. They came within five outs of reaching the World Series after winning the NL Central in 2003 and also won division titles in 2007 and ’08, but failed to win a playoff game either year.