CHICAGO -- The major league trading deadline passed on Wednesday afternoon without the Chicago Cubs making any further deals after making several trades earlier in the month, including dealing pitchers Matt Garza and Scott Feldman along with outfielder Alfonso Soriano.
"The last couple of days we had a lot of irons in the fire but never got that close," general manager Jed Hoyer said Wednesday after the deadline.
Sources confirm outfielders Nate Schierholtz and David DeJesus along with pitchers Kevin Gregg and James Russell all had interest from other teams. Catcher Dioner Navarro was rumored to possibly be heading to the St. Louis Cardinals after an injury to Yadier Molina sent them into a buyer's mode.
"Yadier and I have the same agent so he called me up and said there are some rumors that I'm going to St. Louis because of Yadier's health," Navarro said.
But in the end Hoyer said there simply wasn't the right match for any of his players.
"We thought we had a high but not unreasonably high price on some of the guys, but a lot of the guys we were being asked about we control going forward," Hoyer said. "In some ways it makes our winter potentially easier."
Hoyer was referencing players such as Schierholtz, DeJesus and Russell. In all three cases those Cubs have a say in where they play next year even if they don't have a contract for 2014 yet. More than anything the Cubs believe the work they did in making deals early in July means Wednesday wasn't any disappointment.
"Earlier in the month teams are a little more specific about the players that they ask for," Hoyer said. "They want one player in particular. Sometimes near the deadline people are all over the place and have their hands in a lot of different pots. That can make deal difficult. It was strategic to move early and we're glad we did it."
The Cubs acquired pitchers Pedro Strop and Jake Arrieta from the Baltimore Orioles for Feldman and minor league catcher Steve Clevenger while trading Garza brought them third baseman Mike Olt and pitchers Justin Grimm and C.J. Edwards. Soriano fetched them Class-A pitcher Corey Black from the New York Yankees. Outfielder Scott Hairston was also moved for a prospect.
It meant the Cubs felt no "angst" to get something done on deadline day.
"We just didn't have the value there to make any deals," Hoyer said.
It doesn’t mean the Cubs are done. August deals happen often but a player has to clear waivers first. If he doesn't then the Cubs can only make a deal with the team that claims the player.
"I think that it's a possibility," Hoyer said. "We'll sit down and map out how we want to play the month of August. When we want to put guys on waivers or not. August deals are always a possibility."
With cheap price tags on some of the Cubs players there's no guarantee they will clear waivers but even if another deal isn't consummated the Cubs know they accomplished a lot.
"We never got close the last couple of days to doing anything," Hoyer said. "The good thing is we feel like we were incredibly productive this month."