MESA, Ariz. — Chicago Cubs president Jed Hoyer, who has yet to make a playoff appearance as he enters the final season of his five-year contract, knows that 2025 looms large for the team and his career.

After nearly a decade and a half in Chicago’s front office, after working under former team executive Theo Epstein, and with a new-look roster, Hoyer knows the expectations.

“Does it feel different than it has in the past?” Hoyer asked Sunday during the Cubs’ first day of spring training. “A little bit. I’ve been here for 14 years and sort of generally in my career, I haven’t had much uncertainty. And so I think with uncertainty does come a level of anxiety. I think that would be a lie to say that it doesn’t.”

Hoyer was tasked with rebuilding the team after its championship core from the past decade got stale. It has been a slow progression as the organization hasn’t signed any top free agents over the past few winters.

Instead, the Cubs have built through the draft while signing selected free agents such as Dansby Swanson and Seiya Suzuki. This past winter, they showed more aggression in the trade market, dealing three players for former Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker, who might be with the team for only one season. It displayed an urgency around the organization for the first time in several years.

“Wins are going to be in a premium in the National League, in particular this year,” Hoyer said. “And so I think we’re in a competitive window. I think we’ve gotten better each year. I think we’re at a place where we have a chance to be really good and trying to really maximize our resources within our budget to make sure that we could do that.”

Could that budget include free agent third baseman Alex Bregman? He could push the team over the 90-win total after back-to-back 83-win seasons — and the team has an opening at that position. Hoyer was noncommittal about adding before the Cubs open the season against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Japan next month. But the team has a recent history of a late spring signing when it brought back Cody Bellinger in February last year.

“I think offseasons have drifted later, whether it’s waiver claims, trades, free agent signings,” Hoyer said. “Things happen a little bit later now, but I think given that it’s Feb. 9, I think we’re focused on the guys that are here.”

Those guys in camp will likely determine whether Hoyer gets a contract extension. A playoff appearance would get him one — if he isn’t signed before then. But an underachieving season could also seal his fate. Hoyer didn’t shy away from that conversation.

“Has it caused some introspection along the way?” Hoyer asked. “I think that’s fair to say, but … we have a great front office, we have an incredible manager and a great coaching staff. I think we put together a really good team.

“I think every arrow is sort of pointing up on this organization right now. So, I just think there’s a lot more opportunity for me and for [GM] Carter [Hawkins] than there is risk, and I’m super proud of what we built with a lot of really good people. So that’s kind of how I look at it.”

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Enrique Hernandez, their ever popular super-utility player, have a deal in place, pending a physical, a source told ESPN on Sunday.

Hernández hinted at his return by posting a Dodgers hype video on X.

Hernández, 33, will return to the Dodgers for the fourth time, having been acquired twice via trade and twice via free agent deals.

The Dodgers have long been drawn to Hernández’s versatility and have grown to appreciate how his personality blends within their clubhouse, but it’s his knack for elevating his game in October that attracts them most.

Hernández has a career .238/.308/.405 slash line during the regular season but is at .278/.353/.522 in the postseason. Last fall, when the Dodgers secured their first full-season championship since 1988, Hernández played a major role in several victories, ultimately posting an .808 OPS in 14 games.

On the current Dodgers, who have made a multitude of star-studded additions for a second straight offseason, Hernández will likely spend most of his time at second base or center field, drawing most of his starts against left-handed pitchers.

The Dodgers are soon expected to also bring back Clayton Kershaw, who is coming off knee and foot surgery and isn’t expected to be ready to join the rotation until around June.

Two-time Super Bowl champion Howard Twilley, a member of the Miami Dolphins‘ undefeated 1972 team, has died at 81.

The National Football Foundation announced that Twilley died Wednesday but did not provide a cause of death.

Before landing in Miami, the wide receiver played at Tulsa. In 1965, he was a unanimous All-American and the Heisman Trophy runner-up after averaging 13.4 receptions per game, which the NFF said remains an FBS record.

“Howard Twilley was one of the greatest receivers in college football history with an uncanny ability to get open and change the course of a game,” NFF chairman Archie Manning said in a statement. “He simply redefined what it meant to be a dominant receiver, and his performance at Tulsa during the 1965 season remains one of the greatest in our sport’s history.”

Both the AFL’s Dolphins and NFL’s Minnesota Vikings selected him in the late rounds of their 1966 drafts, and he wound up in Miami.

He spent 11 seasons with the Dolphins, winning back-to-back Super Bowl championships after the 1972 and 1973 seasons. In 120 career games (82 starts), he caught 212 passes for 3,064 yards and 23 touchdowns.

Twilley started all three playoff games in 1972, making four receptions for 61 yards and a touchdown.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Howard Twilley, a founding player for the Dolphins in 1966,” the Dolphins said in a statement. “His touchdown in Super Bowl VII helped the Dolphins cap the NFL’s only perfect season and his contributions to the organization will be forever remembered.”

Post-retirement, Twilley owned a chain of sporting goods stores and worked for an investment firm.