NL WILD CARD SERIES: CUBS VS PADRES

September 28, 2026

Craig Counsell

Petco Park

Chicago Cubs

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. (Off microphone).

CRAIG COUNSELL: Well, yeah, I think players improve at things over the course of their career. I think watching Pete do this for all of us, it's felt -- yeah, at times he was a bad hitter. Let's be honest. He would tell you that. He was a bad hitter last year. He was a bad hitter.

That I think is what kind of makes it a little bit remarkable, but I think we also saw it last year. We saw the greatness and what he had the ability to do, and this is when you take super talented, young men, 24 years old. They've got a challenge put in front of them. It's taught me, like, don't be surprised what can happen for guys like this, and they almost need that challenge and want that challenge and tell me as this gifted person I can't do something, and I think Pete's kind of shown us all what someone like that is capable of doing.

Q. How is Justin Steele through that live today?

CRAIG COUNSELL: Yeah, it was a good day for Justin. We needed to get Justin some work, and he did well.

Q. From afar how impressed have you been with the Padre bullpen, and does it create a different kind of urgency to score early because they've been so successful at the back end?

CRAIG COUNSELL: I mean, I think you think of every game like that. I mean, nobody wants to face the other team's best relievers. You know, certainly, you know, we played them in a playoff series last year and understand how their bullpen is going to work and how they're going to use Miller and (indiscernible), and this year Bradley Rodriguez has been I think really added to that group as somebody who is pretty darn good.

But, you know, it doesn't -- it can't -- I'm not sure if trying harder to score early is going to help us. We've got to have good at-bats. We've got to make ourselves tough outs, and we're going to have to score against the bullpen too, and we have scored against their bullpen. So I think we're confident that, you know, that's how you win games.

You can't predict what inning you're going to score. We're good at making every inning tough, putting action in every inning, and then the inning we break through, who knows? Who knows which one it's going to be.

Q. Another follow on Pete. You talked about -- you used the word remarkable and talked about the hitter that he's become. In what ways have you seen him evolve the most as a hitter?

CRAIG COUNSELL: Yeah, I think two things stand out. You know, his plate discipline this year; the shift in the quality of his plate discipline is historic. I mean, there was a stat going around earlier in this year that I think Stan Musial was the last guy that's improved, I don't know what it was, end zone, whatever, one of those numbers. You know what I mean? He was the last guy. It's been, like, 60 years since somebody had made this big of a jump. Maybe it was walk percentage from year to year. I think that's what it was.

Then the other thing is his swing has changed since he broke into the League. I mean, I think during hitters meetings we play videos, and sometimes it's highlights of guys against the pitcher that's pitching that night. There will be a Pete video. Even back to the Minor Leagues, or, you know, maybe the last time he faced the guy, right, but he did something good against him.

We'll put swings of Pete up there and Pete will shake his head. You can see the difference in the swing. It's now a -- you know, the quality of the baseball swing, I think we can all recognize sitting in that meeting, and Pete kind of shakes his head at it. It's funny when he does that, because you're kind of looking at a former version of yourself. But it's cool to see. It's a credit to the work that he has really diligently put in.

He has a swing -- he's always had a swing that promoted what we're seeing right now, but the consistency of that to still create more quality contact, one, and then to avoid, you know, the chase is what's changed who he is.

Q. If I can ask a quick follow. You've seen October baseball in all different forms and different versions of October in your career as a player and now a manager. How would you sum up when that calendar flips to tomorrow -- you obviously want to duplicate as much regular season as to what tomorrow is, but just what this next month brings in the sport.

CRAIG COUNSELL: Yeah, look, it's just so much fun, and I think the fun of it is -- the fun of it and kind of the part that when you're the manager a little bit that you get frustrated is the fun of it is you get to 162 games, and through that pace of a season, you have to play that at a pace. You know what I mean? There's a rhythm to it. There's a rhythm to how players get used. There's a rhythm to how everything is done. There's a rhythm to the work.

Then you turn the calendar to tomorrow, and everything is done with the utmost urgency. The second thing is it doesn't matter how anything happens tomorrow, like, aesthetically. It just matters that we win. That's the bottom line, because we got to win two games in the next three days, so everything, how anybody does, how anything happens, it doesn't matter. You got to win the game.

I think you probably -- we lean more on process over 162 games because you have to. You have to. I think when you get into a two out of three series to play the next game, you know, your thought has to change a little bit.

Q. I have a question about Imanaga. Is there a chance he could pitch in this series, and how do you plan to use him overall in this postseason?

CRAIG COUNSELL: Now, I'm not trying to -- yes, he's going to pitch this series. I'm confident. As a starter, as a reliever, I don't know. I think he's going to -- we got to get -- I look at these games kind of in this context that we're talking about of how the urgency is you have 27 outs. We just got to figure out how to get 27 outs, and the order that that happens, starter, reliever, closer, setup man, those words don't matter. We're just trying to get 27 outs.

Q. Just one more follow-up on the pitching. Did you want, because of the splits, a left-hander going against the Padres because they're much better against right-handed pitching?

CRAIG COUNSELL: No, that didn't go into it, no.