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The Chicago Cubs were likely MLB trade deadline buyers in early June. They quickly changed to sellers over the next four weeks. Just before the start of the second half of the MLB season, they sold one piece, suggesting they might sell a lot more by the end of July. Outfielder Joc Pederson was traded to the Atlanta Braves for a minor-league prospect, offering an early indication that Chicago might have bigger trades planned in the near future.
Cubs announce they've traded Joc Pederson to the Braves for first base prospect Bryce Ball
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) July 16, 2021
No $ changed hands in deal so Atlanta picks up the $3M plus remaining on Pederson contract. Braves stayed outside their top 20 prospects. Also, as @Ken_Rosenthal points out, if things don’t improve for the Braves they could wind up flipping Joc.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 16, 2021
The Cubs, when they went to the ballpark on Monday, June 14, were 38-27 and had the look of a playoff team. Chicago had won nine of its first 11 games of the season against the two teams expected to play for the National League pennant this October, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.
The Cubs used a rock-solid bullpen and timely hitting to rise to 11 games above the .500 mark in mid-June, a very good place for any MLB team to be two and a half months into the season. Manager David Ross had every reason to expect that his team could be 15 or 16 above .500 by the All-Star break, which points to a full-season win total in the mid-90s. That's easily a playoff-caliber record and quite possibly a division championship record.
Then everything — or rather, one thing — fell apart for the Cubs. They completely stopped hitting.
Chicago endured a shocking 11-game losing streak from June 25 through July 6. The Cubs went from 42-33 to 42-44. In that 11-game stretch, the Cubbies scored more than two runs only four times… and in those four games, Chicago's normally reliable pitching imploded, allowing 13 or more runs.
The Cubs scored more than four runs only twice in those 11 games and allowed 15 runs in each of those two games, losing 15-7 to the Milwaukee Brewers on June 30 and 15-10 to the Philadelphia Phillies on July 6.
The Cubs begin the second half of the season 7.5 games behind the Padres for the second National League wild card spot. Management clearly felt it had to wave the white flag, sending Pederson to the Braves as an outfield bat.
Atlanta just lost Ronald Acuna for the season, so Pederson — while only a fraction of the player Acuna is — can accumulate at-bats and potentially give the Braves some pop in their order.
This smaller deal is a notable story because it offers at least a suggestion — if not an outright indication — that the Cubs have plans to make bigger deals. Closer Craig Kimbrel seems extremely likely to be dealt. The really big question is whether Kris Bryant will be shipped. Skepticism remains on that front, but every other prominent non-Bryant player would be advised to have a suitcase packed at this point.
