As the July 30 trade deadline quickly approaches, the Chicago Cubs won't be making moves to turn their 2024 season around.
Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer told reporters on Monday that "unless things change dramatically" over the next week, the team will be looking to make moves to build for the 2025 season and beyond rather than improve for the second half of the 2024 campaign.
The Cubs rank fourth in the NL Central with a 48-53 record entering Monday's series opener against the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers. Chicago lost two out of three games against the Arizona Diamondbacks this past weekend in its first series after the All-Star break and sits 3.5 games out of the final wild-card spot in the National League.
The 2024 season began with some promise for the Cubs, as they opened with a 17-9 record. Unfortunately, a tough stretch between late May and early June caused Chicago's record to drop below .500, and the team has yet to recover.
The Athletic's Patrick Mooney, Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon reported that the Cubs "remain in listening mode" ahead of the 2024 trade deadline and named starting pitcher Justin Steele and second baseman Nico Hoerner as players who would draw trade interest. However, it was noted that Chicago's asking price for those players would be very high, limiting the possibility of either of them getting traded.
USA Today's Bob Nightengale also recently reported that the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are interested in pursuing Chicago veteran pitcher Jameson Taillon.
With all signs pointing to the Cubs missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year, the team's best course could be to ship away its top players and add assets that would be beneficial in the long run.
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