Cubs' clubhouse waiting to see what the front office has in store for trade deadline

New York Times

5 days ago

MILWAUKEE – The message for July 29 was spelled out in black marker on the small, white dry-erase board positioned on Craig Counsell's office desk: If you're worried about something else other than today, today is going to kick your ass.
Counsell, the Chicago Cubs manager, attributed the writing to Phil Rozewicz, the longtime visiting clubhouse manager at American Family Field. It still sounded like something Counsell would say in the final hours before Major League Baseball's trade deadline to minimize distractions.
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Now, though, the Cubs can turn their undivided attention to Thursday's 5 p.m. deadline. In beating Freddy Peralta and avoiding a three-game sweep with Wednesday afternoon's 10-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cubs moved back to one game out of first place, the position they had held for 111 days before recently getting passed by their small-market rival.
The National League Central race could get shaken up again with a flurry of deals in a late-breaking market. Armed with a new contract extension, will Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer feel emboldened to maximize the club's World Series odds this year? Or will Hoyer and general manager Carter Hawkins focus more on incremental improvements and long-term sustainability?
'I know Jed's working really hard, and there's time to go left,' Counsell said. 'You got to be responsible to this team and to the future of the Cubs.
'This team has played well, for sure, and we're excited about what lies ahead. No matter what lies ahead, we're excited to get after it for the next two months.'
Pitching remains the club's top priority, both in the form of at least one dependable starting pitcher and at least one reliable late-inning reliever. Amid that search, it was reassuring that Shota Imanaga at least bounced back from one of his worst starts in a Cubs uniform.
Shōta Imanaga's 3Ks in the 1st. pic.twitter.com/G8ttzwZo7h
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 30, 2025
After a 12-5 loss last weekend on the South Side, the Cubs faced questions about whether the Japanese lefty was injured or tipping pitches against the Chicago White Sox. Though not quite dazzling, Imanaga mostly contained the Brewers in Wednesday's win, allowing three runs in five innings while putting up eight strikeouts against zero walks.
'We've put ourselves in this position to let Jed go do his work,' said Pete Crow-Armstrong, who was acquired for Javier Báez during Hoyer's huge sell-off on July 30, 2021, and has since blossomed into an All-Star center fielder.
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'That's the best, most confidence-building thing ever, like, 'You know what, man? If we don't do a single thing, I got the same confidence in this team to go play very well in the playoffs and make a really good run.''
The churn already started with Tuesday's decision to designate Chris Flexen for assignment. The Cubs wrung what they could out of Flexen, a swingman who signed a minor-league deal during spring training and did not allow an earned run in his first 12 appearances with the major-league club. A bullpen largely made up of castoffs is due for more regression.
The Cubs pressed another button for Wednesday's game, promoting Moisés Ballesteros from Triple-A Iowa and designating Vidal Bruján for assignment. Ballesteros, widely considered a top 100 prospect in the sport, got the big hit with a three-run double off Peralta in the third inning, a highlight that won't exactly stop the speculation that he could be traded for an established pitcher.
'I'm focused on just doing my job,' Ballesteros said through an interpreter. 'I'm not really the type of person who goes on social media to check a lot of those things. I just want to help the team and contribute.'
The morning after Tuesday's sloppy 9-3 loss to the Brewers, the Cubs went back to work with playoff probabilities that ranged from 94.6 percent to 98.7 percent to 99.6 percent, according to the respective forecasts by FanGraphs, Baseball Reference and Baseball Prospectus.
The Cubs, though, haven't necessarily looked like a postseason lock recently. Especially when All-Star pitcher Matthew Boyd had an off night Monday in Milwaukee and All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker had such a quiet July (.625 OPS before Wednesday's 2-for-3 with two walks). The defensive play has been a little erratic.
After the trade deadline, the Cubs and Brewers will play a five-game series at Wrigley Field over four days in August, which will mark the end of their head-to-head competition in the regular season.
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'The group has handled every part of this year pretty maturely,' Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said, 'and done it with the big picture (in mind) but also staying day-by-day. Yeah, of course, this series means a lot. We're playing the other top team in our division.
'The deadline does sometimes carry some weight. I don't think that's affecting anything on the field right now. But, yeah, it is a unique time in the season. Fortunately, we play these guys again.
'There's plenty of opportunity, but it's on us to seize them.'
Shortly after Thursday's deadline, Hoyer is scheduled to meet with the Chicago media on the second floor of the Wrigley Field office building. In trying to manage expectations at a long ago Winter Meetings, it was Hoyer who once said, 'I don't think you have to walk out of here with deer antlers.' But when a team has a chance to play in October, you have to show up with some kind of trophy.
'They're probably on the phone all day today and tomorrow,' Cubs outfielder Ian Happ said. 'Our job is to focus on the game today, the matchup today and doing the best we can to win this baseball game today. Our job isn't to be fortune tellers.
'Jed, Carter and our front office are doing everything they can every day to identify players and put the best product out there.'
(Photo of Shota Imanaga: John Fisher / Getty Images)