Jed Hoyer made it clear during the trade deadline that the Chicago Cubs are trying to do everything they can to improve their roster for 2025. After failing to put a half-decent product on the field for the first 100-plus games of the 2024 campaign, taking that approach didn’t look to be a bad one.

It’s been a very disappointing season for the Cubs, but if they can turn things around in 2025 and show that they’re capable of winning, it’ll be a step in the right direction.

Their season isn’t exactly over right now, despite how poorly they’ve played for parts of it. Entering the year, this was a team that was expected to have a chance to win the National League Central. Now, 5.5 games out of the third spot in the National League Wild Card, it just goes to show how bad things have gone.

It’ll be interesting to see the moves that they make in the offseason.

Instead of taking the approach that they did last year when they were banking heavily on Cody Bellinger to have another great campaign and Seiya Suzuki to put up another career season, they need to surround those guys with hitters who can do damage.

This offense simply hasn’t been good enough, and if that’s going to change, it’ll happen in free agency. There will be multiple free agents who can help this team, so it’s ultimately on the front office to do just that.

One interesting note is that Bellinger can hit free agency in the offseason if he wants. He can opt out of his $27.5 million salary for 2025, but Will Leitch of MLB.com wrote on Wednesday that it appears unlikely that he’ll do so.

“The last guy left from the 2016 World Series-championship team is just barely hanging on at this point. (Cody Bellinger would appear unlikely to opt out of his $27.5 million salary for 2025.)”

Keeping Bellinger should be one of the priorities for this team. Over the past two seasons, he’s been the best hitter on the roster by a considerable amount. Perhaps he isn’t as dominant as he was when he won an MVP, but he’s still one of the better hitters in Major League Baseball.

If they lose him, it’s tough to picture a scenario where this offense will do anything, which is saying something considering how bad they’ve been for parts of 2024.