NL WILD CARD SERIES: CUBS VS PADRES

September 30, 2026

Craig Counsell

Petco Park

Chicago Cubs

Postgame Press Conference

Padres - 4, Cubs - 1

Q. Just how are you digesting in this moment the end of the season?

CRAIG COUNSELL: It didn't go well here. We just didn't play well enough. They're playing really well. We just couldn't get anything going offensively obviously.

Look, it's the end of the season is -- when you're in this position, you're going to be disappointed. You're going to feel unfulfilled, and you can't -- that's just dominating everything you feel right now. Maybe as you reflect, I think I can get to some better places. Right now that's all I feel.

Q. You talked about last year after the season that your message to them was to embrace the hurt and the pain. What was the message to the group after this one?

CRAIG COUNSELL: Look, you've got to take your losses. We lost. There's a response to it that we get to choose, that you get to choose, and we've got to improve. Everybody can point at themselves and say we've got to get a little bit better. Then we get to choose how we respond to it.

Q. When you have a talented team, good players, guys you trust at a lot of spots and things, a team that you feel good about, and then nothing goes right in a two-day playoff, I'm sure it's a helpless feeling, but is it kind of defining? Is a team that's good enough to win in the playoffs and just doesn't deliver, is it fair to sort of use that as this is how the season went?

CRAIG COUNSELL: Look, we're trying to accomplish something. We didn't. That hurts, and that leaves you unfulfilled. We did accomplish some really good things, and I think collectively we gave our fans a lot of joy throughout the course of the season.

Yeah, we're going to have to wait to accomplish the thing we really want to accomplish. There's steps to success, and you're on a path to success. We didn't finish it this year and hope that this has to be part of the journey to the ultimate prize.

Q. I really want to know how you feel yourself. Like three years in, do you have a sense of potentially running out of time as a Cub, running out of years, cracks at it and all that?

CRAIG COUNSELL: You got to get to the tournament both -- you've got to get to the tournament. We've done it the last couple of years. We keep giving ourselves cracks at it, and that's what we're going to keep trying to do, and you've got to try to keep getting a little bit better. You learn from what's happened. You've got to have some fortune on your side with the healthier players and things like that, and we can absolutely get there.

I think we've raised the bar to where we're at. It's hard to get -- it's hard. You get in these games, and you get to playing really good teams. Things have got to go right, and we've got to play well and make good decisions, and we just didn't do well enough in this two-game series or three-game series.

Q. How much are you driven? How much is the reason you're still in the game and want to be in the game because you want to win a World Series as a manager? Do you hold that belief that it's going to happen eventually?

CRAIG COUNSELL: I think that's what you work towards. That's what we're working towards. There's no question about it. That's the dream. Sometimes you're told no, and you've got to keep working hard. Sometimes you don't get the results you want, and you've got to keep working hard. He.

That's sometimes part of the fun of it too, you got to keep -- you're not getting the answer you want, you got to keep going, and that's what we're going to do.

Q. Beyond this result of a short series, how would you like this team to be remembered?

CRAIG COUNSELL: The first thing that comes to mind is Wrigley Field and the moments that Pete, specifically Pete, kind of gave our fans at Wrigley Field this year, the moments he gave them at Wrigley Field. I think there were some great moments that were really what the game is about and pretty special and things you don't -- you're not going to see on a year-in-and-year-out basis. They were really special.

I think also this team dealt with a lot and kept going and put up a number, a pretty big number of wins. I think a couple more wins would have been really helpful, and that's a lesson that you're always -- you're taught every single year.

We did do a lot of good things, and I'm proud of that and proud of the product that we put on the field for our fans.

Q. Just kind of off that, best offense, best defense in the regular season. You obviously talked a lot about Pete's historic season. Maybe this is hard to contextualize in this moment, but does it feel like a missed opportunity at all just given those combination of factors and the work that gets put into building that kind of team?

CRAIG COUNSELL: I mean, whatever -- you can list off this stat and this stat and this stat. It's always going to feel like a missed opportunities when you get to the playoffs because it's hard to get here. Every team is going to have strengths and things they're really good at. We were good at some things. We weren't good enough at some other things over the course of the regular season.

Then you get down to the playoffs, and it doesn't -- what does that mean? You've just got to go play well and win games. In the end, we're walking away unfulfilled and disappointed.

Q. It was a historic season from PCA. Is this his ceiling? Have we seen the best of PCA?

CRAIG COUNSELL: Let's enjoy what he did. We don't have to make any predictions on that. Let's enjoy what he did.