Last year, the Cubs and the White Sox made a lot of noise at the trade deadline, making six deals involving stars like Craig Kimbrel, Javy Baez, Anthony Rizzo, and Kris Bryant.  With the White Sox looking to make a move to overtake the Twins and Guardians in the AL Central and the Cubs looking to further divest themselves of championship pieces like Willson Contreras and Ian Happ, this year’s deadline was sure to be a wild and crazy time.  It wasn’t.

Sure, each time made some small moves, with the Cubs emptying out their bullpen of anyone with a pulse and the White Sox adding a bullpen arm, but those expected big moves didn’t happen.  Willson Contreras, a free agent at year’s end, is still a Cub.  It is safe to say nobody had this on their bingo card.

So where do we go from here?  For the White Sox, Rick Hahn and company have to hope that getting their stars healthy provides enough of a boost to sneak into the postseason for a third consecutive year.  On the north side of town, things are a little stickier.  By not trading Contreras, he will play out the year and will likely be given a qualifying offer heading into free agency, which, at best, will cost him money and, at worst, could leave him sitting at home well into the start of the 2023 season.  Ian Happ is under team control for another year, so, short of an offseason deal, he will go through this same dance next July.