PHILADELPHIA — Watching Cubs starter Ben Brown take the Citizens Bank Park mound Wednesday naturally made president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer reflect on the trade that brought the promising young right-hander to the organization, with veteran reliever David Robertson going to the Phillies in return.
“And I also watch Kyle Schwarber,” he said of the Phillies slugger with a laugh. “You’ve got to take the good and the bad.”
The Cubs infamously non-tendered Schwarber after a low-production 2020 season. Since then, he has become a Silver Slugger and two-time All-Star.
Not every decision pans out. But the Cubs have had a lot of team-building wins this season, between the impact Kyle Tucker and Carson Kelly have made on both sides of the ball, left-hander Matthew Boyd’s steadying presence in the rotation and a series of acquisitions to strengthen the bullpen.
The next major date on the baseball transaction calendar is the trade deadline July 31.
“Our position-player group has just been outstanding, both offensively and defensively, and I think that that gives some clarity,” Hoyer said before the Cubs’ 7-2 loss.
“Obviously, you don’t know what’s going to happen over the next month and a half with that group, but I think that right now, the focus would be on adding pitching and adding pitching depth. That would be the clear thing.
“And maybe there’s an upgrade, whether it’s on the bench, whether it’s some complementary piece. But I think that this group is a really good group. And it’s not just on offense, it’s on defense, as well.”
The Cubs’ pitching staff has weathered injuries to its top two starters, Justin Steele (season-ending elbow surgery) and Shota Imanaga (strained left hamstring), as well as right-hander Javier Assad (strained left oblique) and closer Porter Hodge (strained left oblique, left hip impingement).
While Imanaga and Hodge are progressing toward returns likely in the coming weeks, the team’s injuries in the first 2œ months of the season were a good reminder of the importance of pitching depth.
Hoyer said the Cubs are still in the pre-deadline “information-gathering” stage.
“There’s still very few teams that I think are fully categorized as sellers,” he said. “For the most part right now, the teams that have struggled still think they can get back in the race, other than a handful. And so we’re not quite there yet.”
The Cubs (41-27) have built enough of a cushion to be able to absorb starts like Brown’s. He gave up six runs in 5⅔ innings.
Even with the loss, the Cubs have a five-game lead in the National League Central — a reflection of how well they’ve absorbed the major blows to their rotation.
“We’ve definitely taken a lot of hits there,” Hoyer said. “And these guys have held up well. But it’s a long season. We’re not even halfway through yet, so we have to continue to address that in all sorts of ways — whether it’s trade deadlines, small transactions and hopefully get some of these guys healthy.”
An impressive hit rate on reliever acquisitions this past winter and during the season solidified a bullpen that entered Wednesday with an MLB-best 0.82 ERA over the last four weeks. Drew Pomeranz and Chris Flexen have yet to allow an earned run this season. Brad Keller is on a 20-game scoreless streak.
Asked if he thought the Cubs still needed to add a nail-down reliever, Hoyer said he wouldn’t be able to answer that until closer to the deadline.
“In general, it used to be that you had some more transactions in the tank in August and September,” Hoyer said, referring to the waiver-trade system, which MLB did away with in 2019. “And now you don’t. So you have to think about that aspect of it.”
“We have to play two months without those transactions. And I think that’s really important.”
