CINCINNATI — In the days leading into the trade deadline, Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer was clear in his focus to make deals that can help his team return to contention in 2025 and beyond.

The idea wasn’t to execute a deadline like in 2021, where some of the Cubs’ moves brought in players who were in the lower levels of the minor leagues and years away from impacting the ballclub. This year, Hoyer’s goal was to acquire players who, whether they could help the team in 2024 or not, would at least be ready to help in the near future.

Hoyer ultimately made three separate deals before the deadline passed: Josh Rivera and Yohendrick Piñango were traded to the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday; Christopher Morel, Hunter Bigge and Ty Johnson were dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday; and Mark Leiter Jr. went to the New York Yankees on Tuesday.

In return, the Cubs acquired a former top pitching prospect in Nate Pearson (Toronto), an All-Star third baseman in Isaac Paredes (Tampa Bay) and two players in the upper levels of the minors in right-handed pitcher Jack Neely and infielder Ben Cowles (New York).

Mission accomplished?

“We wanted to make deals we felt like made sense for 2025 and beyond,” Hoyer said during a post-deadline Zoom call Tuesday night. “The goal wasn’t just accumulate assets. … This year, it was very focused on next year and beyond. And so, I think from that standpoint, we were really consistent with what we did. … We did the deals that crossed our line and made sense for us, and we didn’t do a lot of deals that didn’t”

Leiter and Morel were the only two members of the major league roster to be moved (Bigge was also on the 40-man but had just been optioned to Triple-A), meaning an underperforming Cubs team is largely still together.

Relievers like Héctor Neris, Drew Smyly and Julian Merryweather are still here. Mike Tauchman and Cody Bellinger are still around to help in the outfield. Justin Steele wasn’t shockingly traded. And even Jameson Taillon, who’s been a constant subject of trade rumors, remains in the Cubs’ rotation.

Some fans probably wanted to see Hoyer do more. For a team that continues to fall down the standings — after Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, the Cubs are 11 games back in the division standings and 6 1/2 back in the wild card race — maybe a shakeup was needed.

But Hoyer cautioned against that. He didn’t want to make a move just to make a move. Like the trade to acquire Paredes, any and all deals needed to make sense with what the team wants to accomplish moving forward.

“I think that’s a dangerous thing to feel like you need to shake it up,” Hoyer said. “I would never do a deal like that just to shake it up.”

Hoyer admitted there were deals (or even just concepts of deals) that didn’t cross the finish line for whatever reason, though he declined to discuss talks surrounding any players who remain on the Cubs’ roster, specifically.

He did acknowledge his whiteboard full of ideas for deals — he compared it to the chalkboard in ‘A Beautiful Mind’ — which he plans to take a picture of before he erases it. It’ll join his growing collection of photos from past trade deadlines, potentially featuring some moves he may wish he could’ve made, and probably some he’s glad he didn’t.

“You realize how many different deals are talked about, and most don’t come together,” Hoyer said. “We did three deals. Of course, we talked about many more, but that’s the nature of the trade deadline. I think every team has that same thing. No one completes all their passes. And so, yeah, we talked about things conceptually with some different players in different positions. But ultimately, it’s hard to make deals.”

But where do Hoyer and the Cubs go from here?

First things first, he wants to see some improvement on the field, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.

The Cubs had that nice stretch of baseball just before the All-Star break, which made it feel like they were turning a corner. But since they resumed play, the lineup has slumped again. In 11 games, they’ve scored the second-fewest runs in baseball (29) while posting the fourth-lowest on-base percentage (.276), the second-lowest slugging percentage (.578) and the lowest batting average (.199, the only sub-.200 average in baseball in that stretch).

The offense looked very strong in 2023 — Hoyer has mentioned a number of times that the Cubs scored the sixth most runs in baseball last season — so for largely the same group of hitters to have taken this far of a step back is concerning. Hoyer needs to that change over the last two months of the year.

“I really want to see progress over the rest of this season,” Hoyer said. “It’s been a really frustrating offensive season. I mean, that is obvious. We’ve gone from the way we hit last year to the way we’ve played [this year]. Even since the All-Star break, you look at it and you’re like, we’ve had a handful of games we hit, and for the most part, we really haven’t.”

Hoyer empathized with the fact the trade deadline might’ve created some anxiety on the team, because of the uncertainty that comes with it. But his hope is, now that it’s passed, the offense — and the team as a whole, really — can stabilize and make the improvements he wants to see.

He acknowledged that while two months of baseball is a lot, “it’s highly unlikely to be enough to get back in the race.” However, he also emphasized that the rest of the schedule is still important in evaluating the offense going into next season.

Obviously, the hope is that acquiring Paredes helps jump-start that offensive turnaround. But regardless, the turnaround needs to happen.

Because if it doesn’t…

“Then rightfully,” Hoyer said, “there’ll be a lot of questions going into the offseason about, ‘How do we fix an offense that, with the same players, went from a very good offense in ’23 to a well-below-average offense in ’24.'”