(670 The Score) The Cubs continue to scour the trade market in an effort to fortify their roster, with a big focus on pitching as well as an interest in adding position player depth, general manager Carter Hawkins said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Tuesday morning.
“You always cast a really wide net at the deadline, especially when you’re just entering July like we are right now,” Hawkins said. “Certainly, with the way our team is playing, we’re in a position where we want to reinforce our team, where we want to improve our team. You try to figure out where the spots are where you’re most likely going to be able to improve. I think arms is definitely, if you just look at how we’ve performed overall, is the area we can do that the most. But to your point on position players, yes our position players have been outstanding, but adding more depth and being a little bit more resilient for some of the injuries that are inevitably going to happen over the course of the next few months, that’s something we’ll look into too. If we can find things to help our team and they don’t have an exorbitant price, I think we’ll strike.”
Entering play Tuesday, the Cubs sat atop the NL Central at 49-35, with a two-game lead on the second-place Brewers. The Cubs held a 6.5-game lead just a couple weeks ago before their tough stretch and the Brewers winning eight of their past 10 games tightened the division race.
Hawkins was also asked about how the Cubs weigh one or two bad outings by a pitcher or a few poor games from a hitter against the entire body of work as they evaluate whom to trade for.
“In a macro level, really the question is just what’s most predictive?” Hawkins said. “Almost every single time, what’s most predictive is the body of work. Now, if something significant changes in that one bad outing, if a guy is hurt or if a guy’s velocity went down significantly or his swing changed significantly, then that would be something you’d want to weigh a little bit more because it becomes more predictive at that point. Generally, you’re looking at the larger body of work, just because it’s more predictive. That’s really what we’re trying to do here. One of the main functions of a baseball operations department is to forecast future performance of players, and that’s looking at the full gamut of information on those players."
The Cubs open a three-game series against the Guardians on Tuesday at Wrigley Field. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. CT. The game can be heard on 670 The Score and the Audacy app. Pregame coverage starts at 6:30 p.m.
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