5 Trades the Chicago Cubs should make as buyers at the MLB Trade Deadline

A little over a month ago I posted an article that did a deep dive on five prospect packages the Chicago Cubs should be excited to get if they’re sellers at the trade deadline.

What a difference a month can make because since that time the Cubs are 14-8 and are only 3.5 games out of first place. That means that we are now going to look at some potential trades the Cubs could make at the deadline if they continue on this trajectory and look like buyers.

This is not going to be an article that has the Cubs receiving the top available players in the trade market in return for bottom-of-the-barrel prospects. You’ve got to give in order to get in this league. We won’t see any trades within the division regardless of how bad the Cardinals are because it is exceedingly rare. The idea here was to focus on a couple of things:

1. What are areas of need on this Cubs team that could continue to be areas of need moving forward into the contention window? 
2. Are there teams that will be sellers that have players that could fill those areas of need, and moreover are the players that they could make available controllable for more than this season?
3. What is a reasonable return based on the status of the team that the Cubs trade with? For example, a trade with the Giants may see the Cubs send prospects that are closer to the majors, whereas a team like Colorado may be looking for younger, higher-upside players.

With that being said, here are five trades that the Cubs should be ecstatic to complete if they are able to continue winning and find themselves in a playoff race in July and August.