Trade deadline nears, but Cubs don’t have much to sell

Looking ahead to the July 30 trade deadline while the Cubs sink in the standings is a reasonable thought process.

But there's no need to get carried away. The future of the franchise is not at stake. This is not 2021, when the World Series core was sent away.

Even if the Cubs are so-called sellers at the deadline, there's only so much they'll be able to do. Cody Bellinger has questionable value, Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki have no-trade clauses, the Cubs aren't trading long-term shortstop Dansby Swanson or any of their top prospects.

Back at Wrigley Field on Tuesday, there were no signs of a Cubs uprising. They had another quiet offensive game, until Seiya Suzuki hit a 3-run homer in the ninth, and lost to Philadelphia 6-4.

Trea Turner connected for a pair of home runs against Cubs starter Hayden Wesneski, while Phillies pitcher Michael Mercado got the win in his first major-league start.

Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer agreed there won't be many significant trades to make when he spoke to reporters over the weekend.

“When you look out at the field, I think a lot of the positions are guys that are either a young guy we want to give playing time to or an older player that we locked in with a contract,” Hoyer said. “There's not a ton of wiggle room as far as how we can shake things up and improve things positionally.”

The path was already obvious. The current Cubs lineup, with no long-term contracts beyond Swanson, was built as sort of a bridge to a younger, brighter future. If the Cubs were contenders, they might try to flip a few prospects for veteran help.

Sitting in last place, the current group has made the decision easy. Now the Cubs need some of those prospects to become rising stars at the big-league level. They've had some success stories on the mound (Justin Steele, Javier Assad, Ben Brown), but no luck yet with position players, outside of maybe Michael Busch.

The rest of the NL Central is certainly loaded with bright young stars. The Cubs just got beat by some of them in Milwaukee last weekend.

The extent of the Cubs trade bait might be second baseman Nico Hoerner, pitcher Jameson Taillon and maybe a reliever or two. Those players aren't likely to be the difference in a World Series run, but could be useful depending on team needs.

Hoerner figures to be traded sooner or later, since the Cubs have two different prospects who could end up at second base, Matt Shaw or James Triantos.

The Cubs will have three participants in the MLB Futures Game during all-star weekend — Shaw, outfielder Owen Caissie and catcher Moises Ballesteros.

Bellinger ranks 18th on the list of MLB's highest player salaries, but was 71st in OPS at the start of the day. He's got a three-year deal with opt-outs after years one and two. So any team that trades for Bellinger won't know for sure if they've got him until the end of the season or through 2026.

Since winning MVP in 2019, Bellinger has had just one good season out of the last four. Unless he goes on a tear, it's hard to imagine his trade value being very high. And if he does go on a tear, the Cubs will probably start winning more often.

Manager Craig Counsell was asked a long question about the trade deadline before Tuesday's game and, in general, didn't have much to say on the topic.

“I like the words 'improve the team.' So I think you're going to consider everything that helps you improve the team,” he said.

Counsell has his eye on a late-July pitching haul. If all goes well, the Cubs expect to get Brown, Mark Leiter Jr., Julian Merryweather and Jordan Wicks back from the injured list after the all-star break. Merryweather threw on the mound Tuesday at Wrigley and is expected to go on a rehab assignment next week.

“That's a good group of pitchers,” Counsell said. “That's very important to this team, absolutely, very meaningful. There's starters, there's relievers. It's a meaningful group that we were counting on for major innings.”

With the two home runs by Turner, Wesneski has now given up 10 home runs in his last 20 2/3 innings pitched. He was close to having a decent outing, but gave up a walk in the second ahead of two well-placed ground-ball doubles down the lines.

Twitter: @McGrawDHSports