Hoyer Sheds Light on Cubs Trade Deadline Plans

The Chicago Cubs are a bit of an enigma this season, which makes them hard to place firmly in the "sellers" or "buyers" section of the MLB trade deadline. 

The Cubs sit at 26-34, having won just four of their last 10 games, but they only sit 6.5 games back of the National League Central lead. A very bad division at that. 

Still, for weeks many have placed the label of "seller" on this team solely for how they are built. 

Commodities such Marcus Stroman, Drew Smyly and Cody Bellinger all have contracts that are conducive to moving them this year. They would also bring in a haul.

But Chicago has also underperformed slightly this season and they have plenty of prolific pieces to help them chase the unlikely postseason berth.

Maybe another piece or two at the deadline helps get them over the hump?

President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer spoke with The Athletic about the very matter and when fans can expect an answer on when the decision to buy or sell will be made. 

“End of July,” Hoyer said. “I’d love to know sooner. I’d love to rattle off a long winning streak and feel like, OK, all these questions are not going to be asked anymore. That would be the hope. Certainly, we’re not going to make any decisions early. Listen, we had a really good month, and we had a really bad month. We need to play well. The frustrating thing is that we just haven’t been able to rattle off win streaks.”

For now, the Cubs must stay the course. Try and string wins together. And begin to perform to their abilities. 

This is a team full of talent, now they must prove over the next six weeks that the front office needs to add to this squad, not subtract.