In a move that has sent shockwaves through Major League Baseball, the Ricketts family has officially sold the Chicago Cubs to controversial Silicon Valley billionaire Eli Hartmann, founder of the AI sports analytics firm NeuroDiamond. The sale, reportedly valued at $4.3 billion, was finalized late last night — and has already triggered massive upheaval inside the organization.
Just hours after the sale was confirmed, the Cubs’ entire front office — including President Jed Hoyer, GM Carter Hawkins, and multiple scouts and analysts — resigned simultaneously, citing “irreconcilable differences with the new owner’s vision.”
🧠 A.I. Over Baseball?
Hartmann, 38, has long advocated for a “human-free decision model” in sports, and has stated publicly that managers and scouts are “obsolete in a data-dominated game.”
In a livestreamed announcement from his San Francisco headquarters, Hartmann said:
“This is not just a baseball team. This is a testbed for the future of competitive optimization. Emotion and gut instinct will be replaced with precision and code.“
According to early reports, Hartmann plans to:
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Replace manager Craig Counsell with a proprietary AI decision engine by the end of the season
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Eliminate all on-site scouting in favor of satellite-based motion capture and neural simulations
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Use player DNA data to predict injury probability and contract value
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