Jed Hoyer says Cubs pitching pursuit is active, big moves expected after All-Star Break

What happened

Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said Tuesday morning that pitching remains Chicago's primary focus heading toward the August 3 trade deadline — and that dialogue with other clubs is already underway, even if nothing significant has moved yet.

Speaking on The Mully & Haugh Show on 104.3 The Score, Hoyer described the current state of the market as active but modest in scale, per MLB Trade Rumors. He noted that talks with other teams about pitching are happening, but characterized the transactions taking shape at this point in the calendar as smaller in nature. He added that the major moves and significant transactions people would be talking about are much more likely to happen after the All-Star Break or even closer to the deadline, per MLB Trade Rumors.

Hoyer also offered a structural explanation for why the market has not yet opened up: the playoff picture in both leagues remains crowded enough that most clubs are still straddling the buyer-seller line, making it difficult to find willing trade partners for anything substantial this far out. That is a familiar posture for front offices in mid-June, and Hoyer's framing — engaged but patient — reflects the reality of a market that has not yet sorted itself.

Why it matters

Hoyer had flagged pitching as the team's likely trade focus at the start of June, and per MLB Trade Rumors, that priority has not shifted even as the offense has struggled this month. What has changed is the urgency on the pitching side itself — the Cubs are among several clubs whose staff has been hit hard by injuries this season, which makes the need both more pressing and, in a market full of similarly depleted rotations, potentially more expensive to address.

The timing of Hoyer's comments matters operationally. The August 3 deadline is the hard cutoff for acquiring players who are eligible for the postseason roster, which means the window for meaningful additions is shorter than the calendar suggests. Hoyer's expectation that significant transactions will cluster around or after the All-Star Break is consistent with how deadline markets tend to develop — sellers need to assess their own standing before they are willing to move meaningful pieces, and that assessment sharpens once the second half begins.

For a Cubs club sitting in a Wild Card position, the calculus is straightforward even if the execution is not: the rotation needs reinforcement, the market will open up in a few weeks, and the front office is already in the room. Whether Chicago ends up pursuing a front-line arm, a depth piece, or something in between will depend on how the next several weeks unfold — both for the Cubs and for the teams they are calling.

Where the club stands

### Is the Cubs' rotation healthy enough to wait until the deadline?

That is precisely the question Hoyer's comments leave open. The Cubs are 89-73 (.549), second in the NL Central and 14 games back of the division leader. That gap has effectively closed off the division path — Chicago is eliminated from the division race — and their route to October runs through the Wild Card, where they currently rank second, +1.0 above the cut line. They enter this stretch on a one-game winning streak.

A margin of +1.0 above the Wild Card cut line in late June is thin enough to keep the front office honest. It is also thin enough to make patience feel like a calculated risk rather than a luxury. Hoyer's comments suggest the organization believes the market will be worth waiting for — but the standings offer a daily reminder of what is at stake if the rotation continues to thin out before the deadline arrives.

The upcoming schedule offers a useful stress test. Chicago heads to Citi Field to face the New York Mets, with Javier Assad opposing Nolan McLean in one Wednesday game, Shota Imanaga facing Sean Manaea in a second Wednesday matchup, and Matthew Boyd set to start against Freddy Peralta on Thursday. That is a three-game series against a Mets club that figures to be engaged in its own buyer conversations — making it both a competitive measuring stick and a window into how the Cubs' current rotation depth holds up against a quality opponent.

Boyd's presence in the Thursday probable is worth noting in the context of Hoyer's remarks. The Cubs' staff has been navigating injuries, and the names appearing in the probable-pitcher lines over the next few days represent the current state of that depth. How those arms perform between now and the All-Star Break will shape how aggressively Chicago moves once the market opens.

What we don't know yet

Hoyer's comments were candid about process and timing but deliberately vague about targets. He did not name any specific pitchers the Cubs are pursuing, did not characterize the cost they are willing to absorb, and did not indicate whether Chicago is focused on rotation depth, a front-of-the-rotation arm, or bullpen reinforcement — or some combination. Per MLB Trade Rumors, the reporting reflects what Hoyer said publicly on a radio appearance, not any internal club communication about specific negotiations.

The buyer-seller dynamic Hoyer described also cuts both ways. A crowded playoff picture means more teams are still in contention, which can suppress the supply of available arms — sellers do not move their best pitchers if they still believe they are in the race. That same crowded picture means Chicago has competition for whatever does become available. How that market shakes out over the next several weeks is genuinely unknown, and Hoyer's comments reflect that uncertainty rather than paper over it.

It is also worth noting that Hoyer's framing — major moves and significant transactions happening post-All-Star Break — leaves room for smaller additions before then. Whether the Cubs make any such moves in the near term, and what form they might take, remains unaddressed in the reporting.

What to watch

The most direct thing to monitor is the Cubs' rotation health between now and the All-Star Break. Hoyer's comments suggest the front office is prepared to be patient and let the market develop, but that patience has limits if injuries continue to accumulate. A further thinning of the staff could accelerate the timeline for at least a smaller move.

The broader trade market is also worth tracking. As Hoyer noted, the buyer-seller line will clarify once the second half begins and teams have a clearer read on their own standing. The clubs that tip toward selling — particularly those with controllable starting pitching — will define what Chicago can realistically acquire and at what price.

And the schedule itself will tell part of the story. The Mets series at Citi Field, with Assad, Imanaga, and Boyd taking the ball over the next two days, is an early-second-half audition for a rotation that Hoyer has already acknowledged needs help. What those outings look like will inform, at least at the margins, how urgently the Cubs need to move — and how much leverage they carry into those conversations.