Bruce Levine appears to accidentally post private message criticizing Cubs front office

It’s an exciting time to be a baseball fan in the Windy City.

The White Sox are 50-45 at the All-Star break and in first place in the AL Central. Meanwhile, on the North Side, the Cubs are 54-42, good for the top Wild Card spot in the NL. The Cubs entered the season with higher expectations, but with seemingly the club’s entire pitching staff having spent time on the IL, the North Siders’ success might be the more shocking of the two.

Manager Craig Counsell and his coaching staff have done a phenomenal job of keeping the ship steady amid the horrible injury luck, and veteran 670 The Score and Marquee Sports Network reporter Bruce Levine appears to believe Counsell’s success is coming despite incompetence from his front office.

On Monday night, when the rest of the MLB world was watching Jordan Walker hit bombs en route to becoming the first St Louis Cardinals player to win the Home Run Derby, Levine dropped a bomb of his own on X, where he appeared to accidentally post a private message.

“You and the other coaches have been the stars of the team being 12 games over .500. Let’s hope twinkle dee and twinkle dum don’t sell you guys out like the 2025. Enjoy the t the family time pal,” Levine posted and quickly deleted, but before screenshots were taken and circulated over social media.

I am never deleting this app. Truly generational stuff. What a time to be alive. Go Cubs pic.twitter.com/iNL8bMXoCn

— Jacob Zanolla (@jacobzanolla) July 14, 2026

Grammatical mistakes aside, it’s obvious the message was intended for Counsell or someone on his staff, rather than millions of users on social media, where Cubs fans wasted no time poking fun at Levine.

I’d pay good money to have a camera follow Bruce Levine around right now. Need a livestream

— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) July 14, 2026

What’s less clear is who he’s referring to. Levine is unlikely to confirm anything, as “twinkle dee and twinkle dum” are almost certainly his bosses over at Marquee, but with the 2025 trade deadline still fresh in Cubs fans’ minds, it isn’t hard to see why people immediately pointed to president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and general manager Carter Hawkins. Last year, Chicago forwent the splashier deadline moves that some other NL-contending teams made in favor of solid, if unexciting, additions to bolster the team on the margins.

Ultimately, the Cubs finished second to the Brewers in the NL Central and lost to those same Brewers in the NLDS.

As embarrassing as Levine’s gaffe was, it was fairly harmless. And while it’s hard to imagine a reporter’s deleted post spurring any decision-makers into action, it might point to some very real pressure on the Cubs to push the chips in the middle with the Aug. 3 deadline rapidly approaching.