Breaking: At the trade deadline, the Cubs exploit the desperate Yankees in a mega deal.

At the trade deadline, the Cubs have the opportunity to exploit a team and executive in need.

Is it really so bad for the New York Yankees to get swept in the 2024 Subway Series? All they can do is hope so. Since June 7, the Bronx has had the second-worst record in the majors, so things have been going south for a while.

To be sure, almost everyone has regressed from where they started the season, but their offense in particular has suffered mostly because Aaron Judge and Juan Soto are surrounded by almost nothing. The only other healthy players with an OPS above.700 and at least 100 bat appearances are, like, Ben Rice and Austin Wells. It really has been that awful.

Adding a leadoff hitter to bat ahead of the outstanding combo is one way Cashman can effectively address the offense, which has to be one of, if not his top priority. If the Yankees are looking for a team that has both Mike Tauchman, a former Yankee, and Nico Hoerner on their roster, a team like the Chicago Cubs, as Jon Morosi of MLB Network points out, makes a lot of sense.

Given that the Cubs have what the Yankees need, this could be the ideal chance for them to exploit a desperate and suffering executive in Brian Cashman.

Given the positions they play, neither Tauchman nor Hoerner would fit in well on this Yankees club, but at this point, the Yankees can’t really be picky. Adding a leadoff hitter would help them tremendously in their endeavor to show Juan Soto that they are a winning team.

The Yankees could prefer better fits, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see them reach an agreement with Chicago once more. They have made a number of moves in recent years, as Morosi pointed out, and the Cubs have fared fairly well in those transactions.

They traded reliever Scott Effross, who hasn’t pitched since 2022 due to injury, for Hayden Wesneski, a pitcher who has been valuable to them in the bullpen and rotation over the past couple of years. They received Anthony Rizzo, who has only become worse over time, in return for Kevin Alcantara, who is presently ranked as their No. 6 prospect by MLB Pipeline.

Chicago won the World Series despite a transaction that may not have seemed all that good—the Cubs had to give up several years of Gleyber Torres in exchange for a few months of Aroldis Chapman. There’s no reason to think that working with Cashman once more wouldn’t be successful for Jed Hoyer and the Cubs.

There are just so many sellers available to the Yankees. The Cubs are able to provide them with what they require and receive significant value in return from an executive who may be facing termination. It is the ideal situation for Chicago to attack.