MLB-NEWS: The Cincinnati Reds franchise designated hitter has officially signed a three-year, $147.4 million contract with the Chicago Cubs, as reported by ESPN. The announcement was made official today by the team after…..

This story was excerpted from Mark Sheldon’s Reds Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ATLANTA — The Trade Deadline is only six days away, on Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET. Although the Reds (48-53) reside in last place in the National League Central, they are still 4 1/2 games back of the third NL Wild Card position.

That certainly makes it more difficult to drop any predictions.

Cincinnati’s front office was already in “wait-and-see” mode before making decisions on its Deadline approach. After being swept in the three-game series at Washington this past weekend, the Reds beat the Braves, 4-1, in the series opener on Monday.

However, they are still waiting … and still seeing what might happen.

“Nothing had changed from when we came back from the break to now,” Reds general manager Brad Meador said before Tuesday’s game was rained out. “We’ve talked to every team. It’s been very general conversations so far. We’ll continue to just evaluate everything — both short term and long term.”

Meador and president of baseball operations Nick Krall still have some wiggle room to be patient. That’s because nearly every NL team remains in the playoff hunt — except for Colorado and Miami.