MLB-NEWS: According to ESPN, the Chicago cubs officially agreed to acquire the elite starting third baseman for the Cincinnati reds for a three-year contract of $170.3 million following….

Cubs trade rumors tracker: Will Jed Hoyer and the Cubs sell at the deadline

The Chicago Cubs trade rumors are going to picking up now that we’ve entered July. They were hoping they’d be getting ready to tap into the trade market for some additions when the calendar flipped. Instead, it’s getting harder to argue that they should be making any additions at all.

There aren’t a ton of sellable assets on the current Cubs roster. Things like long-term, big money deals, no-trade clauses and underperformance might make it harder to recoup as much value as they could for major league pieces. This team wasn’t really built to sell.

But that might be the course of action if this club doesn’t turn things around in July. Until we know for sure what direction they go before the July 30 deadline, here’s CHGO’s hub for tracking Cubs trade rumors.

Cubs trade rumors: Hoyer does not rule out selling at deadline (June 28)
RUMOR: Speaking in Milwaukee on June 28, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer didn’t completely rule out the team being sellers.

ANALYSIS: What a wild ride the last two months has been for the Cubs. On April 26, when they were 17-9, there couldn’t have been many who even considered they’d be selling at the deadline. Even in May and early June, the talk was more about “the Cubs need to turn this around so they don’t fall too far back in the standings” versus “the Cubs need to turn it around so they don’t force Jed to sell.”

But this is where we’re at now. Instead of being asked what the Cubs are looking to add before the deadline, Hoyer is getting questions about if selling is even off the table anymore — and he is far from saying that isn’t an option.