David Ross In Cubs’ Front Office? Soon, Maybe

One of the best things about David Ross’ tenure with the Cubs was his leadership, his way of showing the Cubs’ young core how to win.

Many of us had discussed, over the last year or so, how nice it would be if Ross could continue with the team in a coaching role, or some sort of advisory position. Personally, I think he’d make an excellent manager someday.

CSN Chicago’s Patrick Mooney writes that Ross’ return to the Cubs in some management capacity could come soon:

“I’m still going to stay in baseball,” Ross said. “I feel like I’m connected to the Cubs for life – or (at least) I want to be. For me to not take advantage of the knowledge that front office has would be naïve.

“There’s a lot of Hall of Famers in that front office. And I want to get to know that side of things. So, yeah, I’m sure there’s something that’s going to work out in the future with the Cubs.

“But I have a lot of other commitments and things I want to do (while trying) to get a life after baseball where I keep my foot in the door some way.”

Whether it’s in a front-office role or on the field as a coach, the Cubs, as Ross puts it, would be “naïve” to not take advantage of his years of baseball knowledge. The team obviously has felt this way about other players they, or the Cubs, have been connected to in the past:

Theo Epstein’s group already features Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly and Kerry Wood as special assistants, with ex-players like Kevin Youkilis and John Baker also involved in baseball operations. Maybe Ross stays involved as a catching consultant while trying to figure out his next big move.

“Certainly, we’d love to have him around,” [general manager Jed] Hoyer said. “He has such a good feel. It’s so rare to have a guy that has that kind of feel for our own clubhouse. How do you not want that guy around?”

In the article, Ross is quoted as saying the things we’d heard about him through his final season: that he’d like to spend more time with his family without them always having to fly somewhere to see him. I can certainly understand that. But at the very least, I’d hope that Ross can perhaps spend part or all of spring training with the Cubs and get locked up in some sort of deal with the front office. Perhaps in a few years, when he’s ready to take up the daily grind of travel with the team, he could get into a full-time coaching or managing gig.

He’d be a perfect successor to Joe Maddon several years down the road, I’d think.