Will the Cubs be major trade deadline players? Joe Maddon and Jed Hoyer talk upgrades

10:51 AM ET

CHICAGO — It’s that time of year again, when team officials talk and talk and talk but rarely say much about their plans in advance of the trade deadline. Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon and executives Jed Hoyer and Theo Epstein are no different. Once in a while, there’s some reading between the lines, but on Tuesday, Hoyer and Epstein addressed needs for the team before the Aug. 1 deadline, but neither told us anything we didn’t already know.

Maddon was asked if he expected any additions. You could almost predict what was coming.

“Whoof,” Maddon sighed. “Dexter [Fowler], Jorge [Soler], [Joe] Nathan. We have a lot of guys from within. I can’t tell you absolutely there will be anyone coming from outside. We have stuff here already we have to evaluate and look at.”

Maddon reeled off two injured players and one rehabbing in the minors. Here’s how Hoyer addressed the question a little later.

“I don’t think you make all those phone calls or send all those text messages and work all those hours if you’re not serious about making a deal,” he said. “But we’re only going to make a deal that makes our product better right now.”

His second sentence is what they all say: “only if it makes us better.” That doesn’t need to be stated, but it always is.

Hoyer’s first thought gives some insight. The Cubs are working the phones, which perhaps makes a deal more likely than not. What also makes a deal more likely is common sense. They still don’t employ a left-hander — or righty — who can get lefty batters out on a consistent basis. Travis Wood has given the Cubs everything he has, but it might …

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