The Jays have scuffled of late, losing three of their last four series and having gone 6-8, buoyed by a dominant sweep of the Rockies. Now they return to the Rogers Centre to start a tough homestead, facing the Chicago Cubs and the Texas Rangers. Despite their struggles, the Jays have actually increased their lead in the AL East, with the Boston Red Sox 4.5 games back and the New York Yankees at 6 games back and in danger of slipping out of a wild card spot.

I reached out to Al Yellon of Bleed Cubbie Blue for some questions about the Chicago Cubs, who are currently 67-50, in the first Wild Card position, and 6.5 back back of the surging Milwaukee Brewer in the NL Central. He agreed to provide us with an insider look on the Cubs as the Jays prepare to face them tonight.

The Cubs were linked to a lot of potential high level trade deals at the trade deadline and landed Willi Castro, Andrew Kittredge, Mike Soroka, and Taylor Rogers. Are Cubs fans confident the current team is good enough to go all the way or do they think Hoyer should have made more moves?

Lots of Cubs fans say Jed Hoyer should have made more moves, particularly in starting pitching. But “should have” and “could have” are two different things. Hoyer said that of the top starters everyone was talking about being available, none of them were traded. The asks in terms of return were too high. So that was, maybe counterintuitively, the right thing to do.

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Of the moves made, yikes, Soroka was not good. Hoyer said they knew about his medicals and the risks and decided to do it anyway. Soroka probably won’t throw another pitch for the Cubs. In hindsight, they probably should have ponied up what the White Sox wanted and traded for Adrian Houser (of course, Houser got hit pretty hard in his first start for the Rays).

In the end they did get two useful relievers and a much better bench player than the one they had (Vidal Bruján, who’s been on two teams since the Cubs let him go).

The Cubs looked like they were in the running for the best team in baseball going into June, but since then, the offense has really struggled. Is there any one factor behind that or is it just a combination of bad luck and slumps all at the same time?

It’s crazy, isn’t it? Guys go through slumps all the time in baseball. But to see all these good hitters, with track records, go through it all at the same time is mystifying.

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Better fire the hitting coach. No, joking here, obviously firing the hitting coach does nothing. I think it’s mostly just bad luck and they will come out of it. Hopefully soon.

Cade Horton looks like the real deal for Chicago. What do Cubs fans see in his starts that encourage them?

Horton seems to have a knack for working his way out of jams. He has so little experience — only 36 minor league starts — that he’s kind of still developing at the MLB level. The current scoreless inning streak (23.1 innings) is pretty impressive. He’s only 23, and I would expect him to eventually recover to the strikeout level he had in the minors (31.7 percent) as opposed to the 18 percent so far in 79.1 MLB innings.

Which prospect are Cubs fans most excited for that might debut this year or next?

Owen Caissie, a lefthanded hitting outfielder, is hitting well in Triple-A and was one of the guys Hoyer didn’t want to trade at the deadline. If Kyle Tucker isn’t re-signed, Caissie is likely next year’s right fielder. He’s the last prospect left in the Cubs organization from the Yu Darvish trade four years ago.

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Jaxon Wiggins is the Cubs’ top pitching prospect and was also requested in several trade possibilities at the deadline. He has a chance to be in the Cubs rotation in 2026.

Who is your favourite Cubs player to watch right now?

Definitely Pete Crow-Armstrong, even though he hasn’t been hitting lately. His defense is still top notch and if he gets going offensively, he has the chance to disrupt any game he’s in on the basepaths. In particular, though, watch his defense in this series. He gets to baseballs that you’d never think ANY outfielder could catch up to.

Finally, just a fun one, if you could choose any Cubs players who debuted with the team at any point in their history and drop them into this team at their rookie position and with their rookie year numbers, who would it be?

That would have to be Kerry Wood, NL Rookie of the Year in 1998 and utterly dominant that year. The Cubs could use a top starting pitcher like that right now.