Chicago Cubs have lots of QUESTIONS for 2025

Let's talk trade deadline and where do the Cubs go from here? A lot of questions for 2025. You are locked on Cubs. Your daily Chicago Cubs podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. You are locked on Cubs, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Alongside Sam Olver, I'm Matt Cozy. Sam and I are lifelong fans, taking our passion into discussion with you on all things Cubs. Thank you for being part of the show and making us your first listen today. And the best way you can help us grow the show is to listen every day, like the video and comment anything below. Today's episode is presented by PrizePix, the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Go to prizepix.com slash LockedOnMLB and use code LockedOnMLB for a first deposit match up to $100. The trade deadline is behind us and the Cubs finished with a more buyer's approach than a seller's, actually. It all began last Saturday when the Cubs got reliever Nate Pearson from the Blue Jays. And the following day, they pulled off a shocker, trading for perhaps the best offensive player to be moved this season in Isak Paredes by trading away Christopher Murrell and two prospects. Then on Tuesday, the actual deadline day, the Cubs did trade Mark Leiter Jr. to the Yankees for two prospects. Maybe this shouldn't be a surprise of a deadline, Sam, since Jed Hoyer has intentions of winning sooner rather than later, but for a team that is in last place in the NL Central and not many open spots on the roster, when you do preview 2025, which is what Jed Hoyer wants us to do right now, this does leave more questions than answers, especially in what was a heavy seller's market. It was a disappointing day and a disappointing season. There's no doubt about it. Now, you can't get into what Jed should have done because we don't know what the offers were. From what I've heard, nobody wanted to spend, nobody wanted to take on money, this trade deadline. And that's a bigger picture thing. That is something we probably need to discuss in the off season, because as we learned in last off season, baseball's a problem, right? Nobody wants to spend money, maybe they don't have it, but that's neither here nor there right now. My hope with this trade deadline was to create fun questions for 2025. My hope was to create positional flexibility, financial flexibility, because this team needs a star player. Jed Hoyer continues to talk about, hey, last year's offense was good, this, this, and this. Last year's offense was good, because for a two and a half month stretch, Cody Bellinger was one of the three best hitters in the National League. And everybody filled in from there. There are plenty of supporting cast members, supporting cast, Academy Award winner, supporting actors, Saya Suzuki could be that, Ian Happ could be that, Michael Bush could be that, but they cannot carry an offense. And this team needs that. And what did they do? They went out, they got another nice player in Isak Paredes, but as you said, as it stands right now, and there's a lot of time between right now and March of 2025, but right now, Ian's your left fielder, PCA's your center fielder, Cody Bellinger's your right fielder, Saya's your DH, Paredes is your third baseman, Dan C. Swanson's your shortstop, Nico Horner's your second baseman, Michael Bush is your first baseman, you have room now to catch her. If Matt Shaw and Casey and Bayesteros all continue to go, where are they gonna fit? They're blocked by mediocrity. They're blocked by a last place team. This is a last place team. I've never heard of this. This is a last place team that has the majority of their positions locked. I was hoping they were gonna free up some financial flexibility so they could go out and get somebody big, maybe trading a position player to open that up, and they still can do that. They still have plenty of money coming off the books at the end of this year, but I was just, this has been obviously, people keep asking me on Twitter, Sam, you're so miserable. Well, they're in last place, and I didn't see it coming. It's been a miserable season, and I was hoping just for a little bit of a glimmer of hope and just some excitement today, and it sounds like we're gonna have to hopefully wait until the off season for that to happen because in my opinion, outside of Isak Paredes on Saturday, which I think is a marginal upgrade, there is nothing to be excited about right now in 2025. It's the same exact team. Yeah, it is pretty amazing that not only did they pay for a last place team now, but they paid for a last place team that returns all of its players for the following season. So far. Right, and I think Cody Bellinger was basically not available because of his injury and contract situation. If Scott Boris pulls off some of his tricks, it actually persuades Cody to, him and his camp, figure out, hey, we gotta opt out, especially after a hot stretch. That would be huge for the team. But him, Nico Horner, were probably less than available than we thought, and so was Jameson Taiyo as all three players remained on the roster at least through the end of this year. Again, I think the Taiyo and 18 M's per year for the next two years what amounts to a number three or number four starter. It does look like early evidence to say that teams did not wanna pay for that. Typically, controllable players have high prices, and then teams decided instead to pivot to rentals, which in some cases still at a high price. Hector Neris is being talked about. Listen, he has a player option that kicks in if he appears in 60 games. We'll see if they could stay under that. They really need to, because at that price point of nine M's, I don't think his player option is worth it. You hear about Drew Smiley, Mike Talkman. I really genuinely think a lot of these players didn't have much of a market, but the problem still stands in how are you going to get better for 2025. The current group is limited, and as of right now, there are no or one open spot in the field if you wanna throw catcher in there. And to get an impact player who's a force offensively for an entire campaign, are those players rare? Yes, but every team that is serious, every team that is serious has at least one of those players. Cubs have zero of those players right now. Are there candidates for something like that, especially if there's more movement? Yes, I have no interest in going over those now. None. But if Jed considers Sunday's morale for Paradez Trade to be a shakeup, then they will need to continue the shakeup this winter because that's not enough. And he noted multiple times again today their focus was 2025. I think that was appropriate given this roster. But what I thought would have been packaged in that appropriate category as a last place team in a seller's market would be to actually sell players. Yes. And did one true sell trade today lighter sold high for two prospects who are playing well? Yeah, one of them's out for the season. I agree with everything you said. Everything's still on the table. It's just gonna have to be a really busy off season. I just thought they'd get a jumpstart on it. The only thing that they did for 2025 was take care of third base, which isn't small. But again, they can't do it. They can't just dip their legs in it, right? Like last year, for example, they had a hole at first base. They went and they made a trade, a cost-saving trade for Bush. They brought back Bellinger. They did the bare minimum to put out a product on the field that you thought could be really good. They need to do something big. And Matt, we know that they have a spending limit. Tom Ricketts has publicly stated that he does not plan to go over the first luxury tax. So when you do the math, you'll have 20 million, say a 20 million. Bellinger for 26, Dansby 25, Tyone 18, right? You got Hendricks coming off the books. You got Smiley coming off the books, Bodie, Mancini. Are you gonna have enough financial capital to go out and get a star player? Or are you going to have enough room as a position player? You're gonna have to do a lot. And I just thought they could get a jumpstart on it today. They didn't do it. And then they followed up and played terrible once again. It's just frustrating. Sometimes you just have to take something as a sunk cost and just take a loss. And it just feels like in every aspect, the off season, going into the year, the baseball season, the trade deadline, it's just all been bad. It's just been a loss. 2024, I thought was gonna be a really fun year. And it has not been. And so you turn your eyes towards 2025 and you're looking for some hope, but it didn't happen today. Hopefully it happens sometime around Thanksgiving. Chad Hoyer did say that he expected at least one more trade. Quote, it's hard to get a trade from concept to conclusion. So many deals fall apart along the way. We had some deals that we thought were close. For whatever reason, they went away at the end. Close quote. And then really for the first time ever, he hinted at some of what the whole fan base has been discussing and what we've been discussing on this show. Regards to the offense, he framed it as, oh, well, they have to improve the last two months. They have to show us, improve the front office that they can actually hit and score. Saying this, quote, if that doesn't happen, then there will be a lot of questions going into the off season on how we fix the offense with the same players that went from a very good offense in 23 to a well below average offense in 24. Close quote, which is exactly what Sam is saying right there. And... Can I comment on that? There's just a lot. There's just a lot of mountains to climb. Can I comment on that? I didn't hear that. That terrifies me. Because if this offense turns it around, who cares? Right. The problem is still at hand. The damage is done. If they turn it around, it's only because the pressure's off of them. They can't do it when it counts. Turning it around in this two-month period would mean nothing. They're not gonna make the playoffs. And they've already done the damage. All that it does is it inflates the stats. There's one stat. I shouldn't be yelling. Hold on a second. Okay. There's one stat. There's one stat that matters. Wins. Going into the postseason and winning a championship. They've already given that away because for two-plus months, they were the most anemic, poor offense in all of baseball. It would be so on brand for these guys to have a great August, it doesn't look like it's coming, and a great September, finish 80 and 82, and Jed goes, the last two months is what we're looking for. Let's run it back. And then we're right back here next year. Jed Hoyer can't be that short-sighted. To me, I'm looking at PCA. I'm looking at some individual guys that have had decent seasons, so hopefully they finish strong. But this team concept, what they do these final two months offensively, if that actually is weighing in their consideration, then shame on them. Because it's not about that. It's not about their numbers. It's about the clutch. It's about the high-leverage situations. When the ship's going down, who's gonna raise it up? And the answer is a star, and there ain't one walking through that door. Yeah, I think it's really well said, and the damage is done part of it really rings true with me because I do think there's some things to evaluate in the last 53 games. There is, absolutely. But it's just not as important. It's just not. No, let me just clarify. There are some things, for sure, individually. Which is what you said. My point is, is let's say, I don't know, what is it? What is there, 53 games left? 53 now, yeah. Let's say they go 30-23 in the last 53 and the offense turns around. There's no way you can say that's good enough to me and let's run this thing back. That's all I'm saying. No, and I actually have, I'm wondering if they can finish with a winning record. You just said 30-23. That would be 31-22 if you wanna just say, oh, well, they finished 82-80. But again, there's nothing to build off with the current group in that they severely underachieved and another player needs to be inserted and more moves need to be made. I'm in the belief that if you don't make the postseason, I don't care how many wins you have. Yeah, yeah. So you don't necessarily have a win total in mind even with these soft pockets coming up, right? No, I would just like to see, I would like to see them either, if they're not gonna make the playoffs, fine. And then I'm watching PCA. Justin Steele's proven that he can pitch and leverage. So he didn't pitch well tonight. I'd like to see him bounce back. I wanna see how Imanaga does the second time through against all these guys. Bush. Suzuki's had a nice year. I wanna see him finish strong. Can Michael Bush cut down his K rate? Because I think he's become a little bit overrated to be honest with you. He should not be batting second in a team that's serious about making the postseason, albeit he's had a nice rookie campaign. Those are the things I'm looking at, but I'm just saying, win total, whatever. If they win 85 games this year, if they win 86, but they don't make the postseason, it's a failure. This team was supposed to win, this team was supposed to compete for a division title and they didn't. Their bullpen was bad and their offense has been horrible. So it's just, I don't like that quote from Hoyer. Nothing team-wise should go into that. If Ian Happ's five for 40 or something, or five for 30 in the second half, so he finishes strong, so what? He's on the team regardless, but whatever. Yeah, I thought it was worth talking about. No, it's a great quote. I didn't know that. That makes me even more frustrated. Coming up next, let's recap Tuesday's game and get into some batting order things with one new old edition, one really new edition coming up next. Today's episode is presented by SupplyHouse. Get supplies from the site that's made for the skilled trades, SupplyHouse.com, the reliable way to order plumbing, HVAC, and electrical products online. Our easy to use website is packed with helpful resources and the latest product info to help you get the job done right. Shop a complete inventory of over 200,000 parts from over 400 top brands and get your order delivered right to your door with fast shipping from coast to coast. Need help with an order? You can get expert support and industry leading service from the friendliest folks in the business and talk to a real person every time. You can also take advantage of their free Trademaster program, which gets you access to a dedicated phone line, free shipping, and discounts on every order. Join the thousands of trade pros already benefiting from their free membership at SupplyHouse.com and order plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies from anywhere with just a few clicks of a button. To find SupplyHouse, go to SupplyHouse.com. Cubs play the Reds at 6.10 p.m. Central Wednesday. You can hear every pitch of the Cubs' hometown broadcast on SiriusXM by searching Cubs on the SXM app. Cubs lost 6-3 to the Reds on Tuesday, now 51-58 overall, 13-25 against the NL Central, putting two and seven against the Reds. Justin Steele did struggle in this one, five runs, six hits, and five innings. Struck out seven, but walked four on 93 pitches. Jorge Lopez and Ethan Roberts finished the game out of the pen. Cody Bellinger and Isak Paredes joined the lineup, and I do want to discuss what the batting order could be moving forward with them in it. Now, the Cubs did mount a rally of sorts in the seventh that had runners on second, third, and two outs for Paredes, who worked the count full before lining out softly to short on a cutter that was out and over the plate, and Sam, I thought, he got jammed himself there on a hitter's. This was another clunker for the Northsiders, and looks like they're on the verge of getting swept. Yeah, this was a game that really came down to two at-bats. Bases loaded two outs for Friedel. He hits a little floater that finds grass. Bases loaded two outs for Paredes, wild pitch, and he hits a floater that finds a mitt. Justin Steele has just struggled against the Reds. It's just one of those things, and it continued. I will say this. I think the Cubs have hit the ball a lot better than their results will say they've hit it in this series. It's been kind of crazy how many balls that they've hit right at guys, but it's kind of a tired narrative at this point. I thought PCA looked really good today. He went over, but he swung the bat really well. I really appreciate him, and I know guys show emotions in different ways, and just because you don't get angry doesn't mean you don't care, but you can really see that this is hurting him, struggling, the losses. I'm excited to watch him the rest of the way. I think there's something there with him. It's not even close. It's not even close to being ready, but I think there's something there. I think there needs to be some weight that gets put on in the offseason, some muscle. And then just his ability to recognize pitches out of the hand as balls and strikes quicker, but there's something there with this kid, and I'm not, I enjoy watching him play even though he's struggling. Steele struggled. It is what it is. It's a team that has a bug. When he struggles, it feels like he just, he doesn't kind of stop the lead. He just keeps attacking the zone early, and then he's either walking guys or he's giving up big first pitch hits. You know what I mean? It's just nonstop. I thought Peredes, he had an offer, but he didn't strike out. He hit the ball all right. Just didn't find any grass, and Bellinger hitting the home run, that's something to watch. If he can get really hot and get him knocked out of that deal, that'd be tremendous, but yeah, let's talk about the lineup. I thought on, Matt, this is the thing. On paper, the lineup looks good. It looks like a good lineup. It was notable tonight, for sure. It just, it's so unbelievable, unbelievably believable that this team just continues to struggle. I mean, look at the lineups today. You're telling me that they have a better lineup than we do? Right, there's no way. Happ, Bush, Suzuki, Bellinger, Peredes, Horner, Swanson, PCA, Amaya, India, De La Cruz, Steers, Stevenson, Candelario, Friedel, Fairchild, Marte, Espinel, and Forehead. I know, and Happ let off for the first time since way back on April 17, and I think he should keep leading off. Here's my lineup the rest of the way, Sam. Happ, Suzuki, Bellinger, Peredes, Bush, Horner, Swanson, PCA, and Amaya. It's a little bit different from councils tonight. Happ, Suzuki, Bellinger was one, two, three to open the year, I believe. I just wish I could be in a room with all the Cubs analytical people, and Jed, and just say, guys, from now, our job, Jed, you gotta make trades, you gotta do this. Let's get a group of five people together and figure out what we have to do to get a more consistent offense together. As you pointed out many times in this program, four runs is the magic number. They have scored four runs or more since the All-Star break. They're 2-0. Yeah. It's not a coincidence. How many games have they played? Three, six, 11 games. Two out of 11 games, you've scored four runs, four or more runs. Who's the, I mean. What are they, three and eight? I think they got four wins. Four and seven. Cubs are heavy underdogs on Wednesday with Kyle Hendricks taking the mound against Nick Lodolo. Honestly, folks, not sure how much game coverage we'll actually do for that one. As moving forward, I think we'll, I mean, we're gonna cover games, but. Of course we will. Not sure it's gonna be the emphasis necessarily. Gonna be more of these stories and questions out of the games and around them that I think are worth exploring, so. Matt, yesterday. Maybe we'll find that Wednesday, but maybe we won't. Yesterday, I told you I'd rather be at the dentist than watch the Cubs only deal Mark Lane Jr., and it happened. It actually happened in real life. It happened. I was at the dentist for about two and a half hours. And hopefully you're feeling better, so. Yeah, you know, we broke the lighter trade down initially, a seven-minute episode on our feeds. I don't have much on it. But there's really not too much on it. Then the news broke during the game, or Jed revealed, that one of the players got hit two days ago and can't play the rest of the year. It felt like a seller's market, and the Cubs just weren't able to take advantage of it because they have a lot of money committed to very average players. Is that a fair summary? Yeah, no, I think that's what happened. I mean, you know, it's so funny. And when I say funny, it's probably not the right word. Not comedic, yeah. Their roster right now looks way better than it did on opening day. Oh, by a lot. I mean, you look at their bullpen now. I understand they lost lighter, but you know, Lopez is thrown well. Miller's thrown well. You still have Neres. Smiley's thrown better. Porter Hodge. Smiley. Hodge, yeah, is new. Paredes, I mean, it's just, I'm just so confused. This season has just been so confusing, but we'll have some fun, we'll have some comedy. We'll see, we'll see what else happens. It's crazy, too, like when you look at it. The second half, whatever, I'm not even gonna get into it. I can't believe they just went into Cincinnati and just, I mean, I know technically today was a close game, but like, just such a, it's just very, an underachieving group. Well, and I don't know if you were hinting at the schedule there, but that's what we're gonna talk about coming up next. I wasn't. 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Cubs would need to go 31 and 22 the rest of the way just to finish with a winning record. There are two soft spots in the schedule. There's one from August 16 to September 4. That's 18 games. And also one from September 13 to 22, that's 10 games. Then they also play two games at the White Sox. So quick math there, that's 30 of the remaining 53 that are so-called soft schedule games, which is over half of the rest of the year. And Sam, especially given what did and also didn't happen at the deadline, and like you said, the roster from opening day to now, I do think the Cubs could win more of these games than that. Oh, they're gonna have a good August and September and they're gonna get some people to buy right back into this for sure. Can I make you laugh for one second? Yeah, yeah. Do you know what the White Sox record would be if they won all 52 of their final games? They went 52 and 0 in their next 52. 52, would they have even like 75 wins or something? They'd be 79 and 83. 79 and 83, okay. If they went on a 52-game win streak. I don't know if they're gonna win 40 after the fire sale they had. Hopefully the Cubs don't have to face Crochet. I think, or do. Two things I think have been under-talked about in this season. Number one, just how historically bad the White Sox are. Number two, what Aaron Judge is doing. I don't think it's being talked about enough. This is his third straight season he's on a 60-homer pace. Last year, he had 37 home runs in 106 games before he got hurt. That's a 60-home run pace. That's where my eyes are going. Yeah, no, I wanna watch the Yankees more. I wanna watch the Dodgers more, the Phillies, the Orioles, perhaps. Aaron Judge is possibly one of the greatest players of all time. At least, I mean, the slugging. And the White Sox 2024 might be the worst team of all time. Yeah, I mean, what Judge is doing, I just think this is the type of stuff that was being done in the late 90s that changed baseball. And there's one guy that's flirting with 60 every year. It just doesn't feel like a whole lot of people care about it. One, will the Yankees win around them? And he's doing it cleanly, and he's doing it for the best organization in sports history. And he seems like a super cool, awesome guy. I just feel like if we're not gonna rally around Judge, what do we rally around? Michael Jordan ain't walking through that door. I might have to check in on lockdown Yankees from time to time. Yeah, I just, I don't know. I mean, what are we supposed to do? Rally around Michael Bush? Thank you so much for checking out this edition of Locked On Cubs. Great job by Sam this episode. You don't have to compliment me, I'm here. I'm dedicated to this fan base, to you, and to this team. I don't need, you don't need to patronize me. I'd be here if I had two out, three out, four out. Now, would I be out, would I be here in September? Maybe not. I just want to give you a little bit of credit. I don't need any credit, I want wins. You give us 20 to 30 minutes. We'll give you all things Cubs with a laugh or two along the way. Be sure to hit subscribe on YouTube, smash the like button for the algorithm, and leave a five-star review on Apple, Spotify. Diamondbacks are up 10-0 against the D-backs. We're gonna make another one of the World Series, and Ricketts is gonna model himself after that. Now, for your second listen, enjoy the Locked On MLB podcast. Host Paul Sullivan, a.k.a. Sully, is here. Where? Here, daily, to provide national expertise with his trademark humor, to help you get ready for the MLB playoffs here in the dog days of summer. Prepare for the fall classic with Sully, who has it all covered every single day on Locked On MLB, available on YouTube or everywhere you get your podcasts, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team. Back at it tomorrow in Cubs land as they wrap up a series with the Reds, and we'll also continue to discuss their direction moving forward. He's Sam Over, I'm Matt Cozy. This is Locked On Cubs. There is momentum happening here. It's a bad take.