Chicago Cubs News: Key week for MLB Trade Deadline decision

Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and general manager Carter Hawkins have routinely said over the course of the past month that no one game result will be determining factor between whether or not the team will be buyers or sellers at the Major League Baseball Trade Deadline.

That was the messaging that Hoyer had on Friday when the team opened their second-half of the season with a weekend series against the Boston Red Sox.

At the time, the Cubs were five games under the .500 mark on the season and trailed the first-place Cincinnati Reds by 7 games in the National League Central Division.

Since then, the Cubs lost two of three to the Red Sox while the Milwaukee Brewers swept the Reds over the weekend. The Cubs are now 8 games back of the first-place Brewers in the division and 6 games under the .500 mark on the season.

The Cubs are on their last stand if the team is hopeful of avoiding a third consecutive season where they were sellers at the deadline.

Beginning with their game against the Washington Nationals on Monday night, the Cubs' next 13 games are against teams that are at least 10 games under the .500 mark and the North Siders will not have to leave the city of Chicago for 9 of those games.

No one game will determine the Cubs' path at the deadline but series victories and losses will. That would be the reason why the Cubs' weekend series against the Red Sox was a disappointment as two of their losses were blowouts.

Teams are circling the Cubs with interest in starting pitcher Marcus Stroman and center fielder Cody Bellinger and there is an expectation that both will be moved at the deadline. The only way for the Cubs to prevent that expectation from becoming a reality is by winning series and that needs to start with their series against the Nationals.

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