Cubs Targeting Several Starters if Price Is Right Before Trade Deadline

It's no secret the Chicago Cubs are looking to add at least one starting pitcher ahead of Thursday's July 31 MLB trade deadline. However, with the competitive market, the Cubs are looking for the right price, which may not be easy to find.

"No one's untouchable," Cubs' president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said recently (h/t ESPN.com). "But at the same time, we have a lot of really good prospects and you have to feel like you're getting commensurate value."

So, what does "commensurate value" look like, and who might the Cubs be looking for?

The Cubs have been linked to Pittsburgh Pirates' pitcher Mitch Keller, Washington Nationals' pitcher Mackenzie Gore, Chicago White Sox's pitcher Adrian Houser, and the Arizona Diamondbacks' duo of pitchers Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly.

"The prospect of Gore moving is tempting enough to want to engage: 144 strikeouts in 117⅔ innings with enough control that he's walking a career-low 3.4 per nine innings," ESPN's Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan wrote. "Even if stuff-plus models aren't crazy for Gore, he gets elite swing-and-miss and is the sort of pitcher that could tempt teams to overpay."

Other names the Cubs have been in contact about are Cleveland Guardians' pitcher Shane Bieber, Baltimore Orioles' pitcher Zach Eflin, and the Tampa Bay Rays.

"A late entrant into the trade market, Bieber still hasn't thrown a big league pitch this season and is coming back from Tommy John surgery," McDaniel and Passan wrote. "With his fastball up to 94 mph and his slider looking like its old sharp self, though, he's generating plenty of interest and could be one of the bigger names moved at the deadline."