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When even Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, a veteran of exit interviews, says it was “remarkable” how many players mentioned the closeness of the 2025 team in their end-of-season meetings, that’s something to note.
After the team’s playoff exit in the National League Division Series, however, it may have no bearing on the road ahead.
“If we brought back the exact same group of players next year, it wouldn’t be the same,” Hoyer said in his year’s end news conference Wednesday. “It can’t be the same. I think that’s one of the things that the players were talking about in sadness when it ended on Saturday, is you don’t want it to end because you know that this feeling is going to be gone.