5 blockbuster trades the Cubs could, but won't make ahead of the trade deadline

This year's MLB trade deadline is on Tuesday and the Chicago Cubs haven't made any move to add to a roster that forced the front office's hand with an eight-game win streak, the organization's longest since 2016.

Players are coming off the board quickly, with Joe Kelly returning to the Dodgers, Reynaldo Lopez going to Texas with Lance Lynn, and CJ Cron and Randal Grichuk heading to the Angels, who are going all-in as they try to finally get Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani to the postseason.

Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins will have to get creative if they hope to improve this roster for the final two months of the season and also keep their top-5 farm system intact. As excited as the fanbase is right now, we're not going to see blockbuster-level trades like ones that could net the following players.

5 blockbuster trades the Cubs won't make: #5 - Juan Soto

Juan Soto patrolling the Wrigley Field outfield. Seriously, it's what dreams are made of - especially if he's joined out there by Cody Bellinger. But it's not something that's going to come to fruition this year, no matter how badly the Cubs need an impact left-handed bat.

Soto, still somehow just 24 years old, will hit free agency following the 2024 campaign and the Cubs should be first in line for his services given his age and track record. But they're not about to decimate their farm system to land him for the next year-and-a-half, only to risk him walking in free agency after next season.

Soto's current club, the Padres, are in a similar spot as the Cubs - yet to make a move and saddling the line between buyers and sellers. Given the win-now moves that ownership group and front office have made, they'll probably add instead of subtract, in hopes of making a run, but it's still fun to think about a player of this caliber on the move.

5 blockbuster trades the Cubs won't make: #4 - Anthony Rizzo

I get wistfully looking back at the 2016 team. For many generations of Cubs fans, that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But the love affair folks have with guys just because they played on that team drives me nuts: on a daily basis, I hear someone say the Cubs should go out and bring someone back, even when all signs point to that being a bad idea.

Javier Baez, Kris Bryant - the list goes on and on. You can throw Anthony Rizzo on there, as well, although he's certainly outperformed his former teammates since leaving the Cubs. Rizzo got off to a scorching hot start for the Yankees, then went on a two-plus month homerless streak before changing his walkup song to a Taylor Swift track and going off with a 4-for-4 game last week.

Given the Cubs' first base woes and the Yankees sitting in last place in the loaded AL East, some have wondered if New York might sell - which, at least on paper, might make the two teams a logical fit in a deal. But here's the deal: the Yankees aren't trading Rizzo, the Cubs aren't looking for reunions and this just isn't going to happen.

5 blockbuster trades the Cubs won't make: #2- David Bednar

I'm sure the Cubs would love to have David Bednar in their bullpen. But I don't see how this trade would work for a number of reasons. First, and foremost, the Pirates and Cubs aren't likely to hook up on something of this caliber given they're both teams on the rise in the same division.

Chicago has put so much emphasis and so many resources on developing arms internally, unloading blue-chip talent for a reliever, even one as talented as Bednar, doesn't check out for me. Now if the Cubs were in the position a team like the Braves enjoy, with a massive lead in the standings and a guaranteed date with October, maybe it's different.

Remember, the Cubs needed that elite arm back in 2016 and they ponied up to land Aroldis Chapman. But even with multiple years of control left, Bednar doesn't immediately make Chicago a playoff team in 2023. Hoyer isn't coming off his top prospects here, especially when they'd play for an NL Central foe for years to come.

5 blockbuster trades the Cubs won't make: #1 - Josh Hader

Like I said when looking at Soto, I'm still not even convinced the Padres will sell before the Aug. 1 trade deadline. But if they do, the Cubs aren't going to be the team that ponies up for Josh Hader, regardless of how badly they need a shutdown lefty in the bullpen.

Why, you ask? Because adding Hader doesn't make the Cubs a postseason team - the same way that adding Bednar doesn't. A free agent at year's end, if San Diego puts him on the block, he's going to a team that's ticketed for October, not a club whose postseason fate remains in question.

Maybe the Cubs go get Hader in free agency. The money will be there, to be sure. Even as sellers, there's no guarantee Chicago punches its postseason ticket for the first time since 2020 - and knowing that, you can't expect Hoyer to trade his top 100 guys. You just can't.