Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer isn’t afraid to make difficult, unpopular decisions. That disciplined approach has largely defined the organization in the two-plus years since chairman Tom Ricketts elevated Theo Epstein’s top aide to run the show. Hoyer wouldn’t force it just to put a new contract extension on the board, but it’s impossible to ignore how previous negotiations broke down, pushing the Cubs down this rebuilding path.

If it seems, at times, the narrative surrounding the Cubs involves a fair amount of hindsight, that’s because that’s exactly what people in the clubhouse and the front office are still analyzing, trying to apply what they learned and anticipate the next moves. You don’t get extra points simply for doing contract extensions (or having the most homegrown players or spending the most money in free agency). It’s just exponentially harder to backfill and reload if some of those avenues are closed.

Signing Nico Hoerner to a three-year, $35 million extension does not necessarily signal a new way of doing business — the team locked in salaries for two arbitration-eligible seasons and delayed his free agency by one year — but it is a significant deal for a homegrown player who represents everything “The Cubs Way” is supposed to be.

Not signing Ian Happ to an extension before Opening Day will again make him the subject of trade rumors if the Cubs fall out of the playoff race this summer. Happ also handled the news in a mature, understated manner, declining to comment and moving on to the season without creating a distraction.

Those talks did not take place in a vacuum. For a variety of reasons — money, personal circumstances, philosophical differences, talent evaluations, the financial ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic — the Cubs no longer employ Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javier Báez, Kyle Schwarber or Willson Contreras. Until Hoerner’s deal, the team’s last round of extensions came around the start of the 2019 season with Kyle Hendricks (who’s now on the injured list) and David Bote (who’s now with Triple-A Iowa).

“I don’t think we put any additional pressure on it,” Hoyer said. “The goal, whenever you enter these, is to do a deal that you feel like is the right thing for the club, for the short term and the long term. We obviously got to that point (with Hoerner). Of course, there’s a level of frustration that you think about when I look back on the deals we didn’t get done. You look back on — not so much how much money we offered — because that part I feel really good about. But you think about: When did we start the negotiations? How did we conduct it? You try to be as introspective as possible.

“All that said, I don’t think you can overreact and push something that you don’t believe in, or you don’t think is the right thing for the club. I was glad we got to a good place with Nico. We weren’t (able to) with Ian, but that doesn’t preclude us in the future from doing that.”