After a promising start to the season, it sounds like it could be the same old song for the Chicago Cubs when the MLB trade deadline rolls around.
The Chicago Cubs invested this offseason into some big names like Dansby Swanson, Jameson Taillon and Cody Bellinger in the hopes of accelerating the rebuild that has been happening inside the Friendly Confines.
However, with the Cubs entering Wednesday at 21-26 and in the middle of the unimpressive National League Central, Jed Hoyer, Chicago's president of baseball operations, may well enter the 2023 MLB trade deadline on the wrong side of the buy-sell equation.
Chicago Cubs may be a seller again at MLB trade deadline
Certainly there is time for Chicago to turn things around, but it's clear that the roster moves made in the offseason haven't worked out on the north side the way that Cubs fans had hoped. Chicago has already jettisoned Eric Hosmer, Taillon has posted an 8.10 ERA in seven starts and the bullpen has been anything but solid. All of those things have turned the heat up on manager David Ross, with many wondering if his time with the team is growing short.
However, Hoyer took some of the heat off Ross on Tuesday, telling reporters, "Listen, if I'm being candid, I feel like I put Rossy in a tough spot to a certain extent."
Hoyer also added a very interesting quote when it comes to the team's plans at the trade deadline: "How we play over the next month is very important," Hoyer said. "It's not early forever."
The Cubs have a 10-day road trip to California coming up at the start of June, with stops in San Diego, Los Angeles (for the Angels) and San Francisco on the docket. That could be a key to whether the Cubs will be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. If the Cubs come limping back to Chicago from that trip, by the time the team takes off for London to face the rival St. Louis Cardinals, the direction for the deadline could become very clear.
As Patrick Mooney from The Athletic wrote, "It's not too soon to start worrying about selling at the trade deadline." It may not be a direction Cubs fans want their team to head after an offseason of spending and a March and April filled with promise. For a franchise that has relied on, "Wait 'til next year" for decades, Cubs fans are wanting the team to find an answers now and not have to go through yet another roster revision.