Jed Hoyer, Cubs are open to adding through trades but believe that answers to their woes must primarily be internal

(670 The Score) Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer on Tuesday called his team’s recent struggles “as frustrating of a six-week period as I can remember,” pointing to its collective slump during a span in which the club has gone 13-22. The Cubs were 19-12 prior to that.

The Cubs entered 2024 with the hope of contending for the NL Central crown and making a run in the postseason. Instead, they're 32-34 and stand seven games back of the first-place Brewers entering play Tuesday.

While the Cubs have needs at the big league level and a consensus top-five farm system, Hoyer stressed that he must strike a balance between the present and the future. A large part of that mindset means trusting that improvement can and will come from within.

“I’m really proud of our system,” Hoyer said the Mully & Haugh Show on Tuesday morning. “I think we’ve built up a really great farm system. I think ultimately the goal was to be able to bring these guys up, and that creates tremendous efficiency and tremendous depth as an organization. We do want to avoid – we were a little bit guilty last time of constantly making short-term deadline deals that ended up putting us in a hole.

“You’re always trying to balance the winning now, making that short-term move with (if) you do that too many times, you wind up in a real organizational hole, and that’s something we want to avoid going forward. So, you’re always balancing those things.

“We are two games under .500. Certainly not where we thought we were going to be at the end of April and not where we thought we were going to be going into the season. But at the same time, you look around baseball and there’s a whole mass of teams right around that group. Almost all those teams went into the season with higher expectations as well.

“I do think that it is very important to look at external possibilities. We always do, we spend all day doing it. Also, I think you have to look to, ‘OK, what can we do internally to fill those holes?’ Whether it’s improving a player’s performance or whether it’s from the farm system.

“All the answers can’t come externally.”

The Cubs have recently been linked to sluggers like Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Mets first baseman Pete Alonso in the rumor mill as the trade deadline looms on July 30.

The Cubs open a three-game road series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday evening at Tropicana Field. First pitch is set for 5:50 p.m. The game can be heard on 670 The Score or by downloading the Audacy app and searching for 670 The Score.

"The answers have to be internal," Hoyer said.