Cubs make shocking announcement about their trade deadline strategy

Chicago Cubs president Jed Hoyer made it official, saying that barring a winning streak over the next week, whatever the team does at the MLB trade deadline will be to help them in the years to come, according to ESPN’s Jesse Rogers.

The Cubs won 3-1 against the Milwaukee Brewers at home on Monday, improving their overall record to 49-53. Chicago is nine games back in the National League Central standings, behind the Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates. It would take a miracle for them to be in contention to win the division by the end of the season.

The wild card race is a different story, as the Cubs are 3.5 games out of the final spot held by the New York Mets. There are a lot of teams that are technically in the wild card race in the National League. Almost everyone except the Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins are in the race, but some of those teams will sell. As Jed Hoyer said, the Cubs will be sellers by Tuesday’s deadline unless they get on a big winning streak that puts them in a better position.

Between now and the trade deadline, the Cubs have two games against the Brewers, three against the Kansas City Royals and one against the Reds before the deadline next Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET. It will be interesting to see if the Cubs can string together a winning streak between now and then to change the team’s strategy. That could require them winning at least five of the next six games.

What types of trades could the Cubs make at the trade deadline?

Looking at Hoyer’s comments, it seems like the Cubs could be trading players, especially rentals like Jameson Taillon or potentially Cody Bellinger. However, Hoyer said he could make moves to help in 2025 and beyond, which doesn’t rule out acquiring players who are under team control for multiple years. Presumably Chicago will steer clear of players who are leased.

“We’re probably going to make a lot of moves that are going to help us just for this year,” Hoyer said, via Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. “If moves help us in 2025 and beyond — I think we’re still in an exceptionally good spot — I think that’s where we’ll focus. But just focusing on 2024, I think that’s probably not going to be our focus unless things change dramatically.”

It will be interesting to see what kinds of moves Hoyer has up his sleeve next week.