CHICAGO — When the Cubs were preparing for the 2018 draft, one name kept coming up: Nico Hoerner. Personnel including scouting director Matt Dorey and veteran crosschecker Sam Hughes adored the young infielder from Stanford. They thought he was a perfect fit for what the Cubs, a club that had made three straight NLCS appearances, were building.

“In each scouting report, it just said, ‘Our kind of player,’ ‘Needs to be a Cub,’ ‘Plays like a Cub,’” team president Jed Hoyer said. “Every one of those scouting reports was consistent in that this is the kind of player that we want to have.”

Hoyer reinforced that desire to have Hoerner be a Cub as his six-year, $141 million extension became official prior to Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Washington Nationals.

The organization’s affection for Hoerner goes beyond his selection with the 24th pick in 2018. They trusted him enough to call him up, literally off his couch, at the end of the 2019 season when they were desperate for a shortstop. They handed him the keys to that position in 2022 after he’d performed so impressively at second. A year later, he signed his first extension with the Cubs.

Despite that strong play in 2022, Hoerner willingly moved off shortstop, a position that would have angled him for more money in the future, because Hoyer had a vision. Hoyer was there in 2016 when he and Theo Epstein built a behemoth on defense that helped end 108 years of misery on the North Side of Chicago.

To bring winning back to Wrigley Field, Hoyer wanted the backbone of his version of the Cubs to be defense. So, despite having Hoerner coming off a strong season at short, Hoyer went out and plucked Dansby Swanson out of free agency, trusting the two would form an elite duo up the middle. Over the winter, Hoyer did the same to solidify third base by adding Alex Bregman. Then, he locked up Hoerner and Pete Crow-Armstrong, two of the best defenders in the game at their respective positions.

“It is the connective tissue of both those teams,” Hoyer said. “We played incredible defense in ‘16 and I think we played amazing defense last year. I think we can be every bit as good if not better this year and going forward. It’s cool knowing a lot of people in this building, not just the players but the coaches as well, take a lot of pride in that. When we’re at our best, we’re really clean defensively and spectacular at times as well. Obviously, Nico is a huge part of that.”

Right where he belongs. 🥹 pic.twitter.com/yiLnrGLQhf

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) March 29, 2026

With Hoerner looking like an impending free agent, the Cubs were getting calls about their second baseman, seeing if he’d be available via trade. What the Cubs learned is that, while other teams value Hoerner, no one valued him as much as they did.

“There’s so many ways to create value in our sport,” Hoerner said. “There are more consistent ways that you see getting paid a lot of money. But I’m very proud of getting to this point by being myself. I still want to improve, I want to add to my game, I want to be the best version of myself. But I’m also proud that, in a lot of ways, my game hasn’t changed from when I was in high school and college. You’re always improving around the edges, but I feel like I’ve stayed true to myself. I’m really grateful that’s valued in this game.”

Putting a price on that wasn’t easy, though. Hoerner’s ability to play shortstop would likely push his free-agent number higher than comparing him to second basemen — a fact Hoyer joked he could admit now that negotiations were over. Those negotiations started in January, heated up over the last two weeks and finalized during Opening Day.

Hoerner’s skillset is just incredibly rare. His agent, Adam Karon, could throw out crazy comps, but someone like Willy Adames hit free agency coming off a season in which he played shortstop and hit 32 home runs. Hoerner has 36 home runs for his career.

So who were the contract comps? There just weren’t any.

Hoerner’s side had to come down from the power-hitting shortstop contracts. And the Cubs couldn’t treat Hoerner like any other contact-oriented second baseman. Not when Hoerner finished 20th in fWAR last season or when he is 19th in fWAR over the last four seasons.

“The comps were hard because the way he accumulates WAR is just different than some guys,” Hoyer said. “But he accumulates a lot of WAR. When you look at any one-year, two-year, three-year, four-year look, by each metric he’s roughly a top-20 player in the game. He’s been super consistent. I think the possibility of adding to that is real.”

Hoerner is an elite base runner and an elite defender at an up-the-middle position. Both skills have become more valuable with rules that limit shifting and encourage base-stealing. He hits for average and rarely strikes out.

Beyond that, it’s hard to ask teammates or coaches about Hoerner and not hear about his work ethic, his attention to detail and this intangible aspect he brings to the game that people just end up labeling him a “winner.” All this despite the fact that he’s been on just one team to make the playoffs. He’s a player who brings attributes to the table that lead to winning.

Now, Hoyer has surrounded Hoerner with more of those players. Many of them filed into the room on Sunday, just an hour after a series loss. Instead of hustling out the door, players like Swanson, Bregman, Jameson Taillon and Matthew Boyd came to support their teammate.

“It’s a high compliment,” Hoerner said when told what his teammates say about him. “But also a reflection of the standards of this group. We all do it in our own ways but those are qualities that are pretty consistent throughout our entire room, from (manager Craig Counsell) down.”

That culture is part of the reason why Hoerner wanted to stay in Chicago. He has yet to do a lot of winning in this city, but last year felt like the beginning of something. Now, locked in for another six years beyond this season, Hoerner can really focus on building a legacy in Chicago.

“A lot of us have this idea that you’re going to stay with the same team from the beginning of your career,” Hoerner said. “To be able to potentially do that, I still haven’t really wrapped my head around that, but it was such a huge priority of this process. It’s such a historic organization. To be able to be here for a significant chunk of that, and hopefully, be able to add to that history is a very meaningful thing.”