Trades at the Major League Baseball deadline do not make champions, championship teams are built during the off season and through development of young players. Good teams that need one or two players at the deadline and get them can make themselves a great team.

By most measures, the Chicago Cubs became a better team at this year’s deadline by getting the players they needed. The problem is, the Cubs needed too many players at the deadline, and didn’t make their lineup more reliable.

With a 64-49 record and being in the top wildcard position in the standings, the question of whether the Cubs were going to be buyers or sellers was settled six weeks ago. Injuries made acquiring pitching a must, but that also distracted from the Cub’s real need, which is that their lineup is not good enough to score runs against better teams.

The real stat that stands out about the 2026 Chicago Cubs is that their record against teams that are .500 or better is 29-25. Contrast that to the Brewers who are 33-22 against such teams, the Braves are 32-18 and the Dodgers are 33-27. In other words the Cubs have a 50/50 chance against most of the teams they will meet in the playoffs, and Cubs hope that the pitching additions will improve their chances, but hope is not a strategy.

The real question is, how is success measured? Hoyer is getting credit for what he was expected to do, but truth is the Cubs are no more likely to get past the Brewers in an upcoming Divisional series than they did last year. To win playoff games the lineup needs to score at least 3 runs by the 6th inning, ideally 4, and while the current Cub’s lineup is capable of doing that, they have proven to be unreliable. The team that won ten games in a row twice also lost ten games in a row.

For the Cubs to become better they need to change their mind about players in whom they are committed to, the most obvious player being Dansby Swanson. Nico Hoerner should be the every day shortstop and Pedro Ramirez should be the every day second baseman, but the Cubs are too committed to Swanson to make that change. (Better yet, the Cub’s should have traded for 3 time batting champ Luis Arreaz, put him at second, put Nico at short and sat or traded Swanson.) The leash should also be short on Ian Happ. Unfortunately, the Cubs are saddled with a former player as manager who is simply not going to sit veterans.

One thing going for the Cubs is their streakiness. The best teams don’t always win tournaments, often times tournaments are won by the hottest team going in to the tournament. If the Cubs catch another winning streak in September, they might streak their way in to the World Series. To do that means the Cubs will have to do something they haven’t done all season, which is win lots of games against .500 teams as they play the Brewers, Braves, and Red Sox in the month.

In other words, the Cubs' record in September will tell us more about whether or not they “won” the trade deadline this year than any current assessment. What they did at the deadline will not matter if the Cubs win the Wild Card series at home and then lose the Divisional series against the Brewers.