Jed Hoyer discusses 2026 Chicago Cubs trade deadline aggressiveness

Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer discussed ahead of Friday’s game how he is not thinking about the Aug. 3 trade deadline. However, he was not shy to acknowledge that the team has needs that have to improve if they are in the race at that time.

“The trade deadline is the furthest thing from my mind right now given how we’ve played. We just have to play better. That’s the priority… Your World Series odds are probably going to be correlated to your odds of getting a bye and getting a bye is such a big deal… A lot of that aggressiveness is based on that ability to get the bye.”

Entering the June 5 slate of games, the Cubs are fourth in the NL Central with a 33-30 record. They are also outside of the National League playoff picture, being 0.5 games back of the Philadelphia Phillies. Hoyer made it known that the team would be looking for pitching instead of hitting if they are in the mix at the trade deadline.

“Our position player group is deep and its pretty set. The backbone of our team is our position play4ers. They have to play well for us to be a good team. We’ll be looking at pitching at that point. (But) sitting here talking about the deadline, given how we’ve played, is the wrong thing to talk about.”

Chicago is dealing with some pitching injuries as players like Cade Horton and Justin Steele are recovering. Edward Cabrera returned to the team on Friday, and Matthew Boyd is not too far behind him. It will be intriguing to see how the Cubs look as they try to correct course this year.