Cubs might get their guy at the trade deadline — but there’s one big catch

The Chicago Cubs are scouring the trade market with just seven days until the deadline, with the latest reports connecting them to multiple high-end arms, ranging from Dylan Cease to Edward Cabrera and Kris Bubic.

For our purposes here, we're going to focus on Bubic, the Kansas City Royals' All-Star left-hander, who tossed five scoreless frames against the Marlins in his first second-half start. The results were there, as they've been all year long, but came with a potential red flag that has Jed Hoyer proceeding with caution.

Cubs thinking big, but not throwing caution to the wind at the deadline

The latest from North Side Baseball's Matthew Trueblood:

As recently as this weekend, sources close to the situation indicated that there was momentum between the Cubs and the Royals regarding lefty Kris Bubic. Right now, though, the team is doing more background work and waiting to see what Bubic's next start looks like, after his velocity was down substantially in his first appearance of the second half. The Royals are another team who has been on the higher end with regard to Caissie, so if the Cubs want to make their dollar stretch on the trade market this summer, talking to both Kansas City and Miami about him makes sense.

Bubic averaged 90.5 MPH on his four-seamer against the Marlins, down nearly two full miles per hour from his season average (92.2 MPH). Maybe it's just some post-All-Star break rust - but if you're trading your top prospect, which the Cubs would likely need to do to acquire Bubic, you need to be as close to 100 percent certain on the medicals as humanly possible.

The other name Trueblood says he's heard is a 'priority target' for the Cubs is Cabrera, who continues to impress as Sandy Alcantara's inconsistent campaign continues. There's little doubt Cabrera has more trade value than the former NL Cy Young winner at this point - but he won't come cheap. We're talking Caissie plus at least one more top 100 talent there.

If Chicago can add a top-shelf starting pitcher to slot in alongside Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga, and the likes of Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad return in August ready for the home stretch, the starting rotation could go from a question mark to a major strength - and give Craig Counsell a serious mix of arms to work with in potential postseason series.