With the Major League Baseball trade deadline slowly fading in the rear view window, it’s weird to think that very little happened over the last few days. Usually in years passed this is the time when analysts break down the ridiculousness of some deals and the absolute astonishment of others to the point of hyperventilation. With the exception of Jake Peavy’s move to the Boston Red Sox and quite possibly Bud Norris’s transit to the Baltimore Orioles as well, quite possibly the other major story of zero hour of the trade deadline is how the Chicago Cubs, somehow, were the biggest winners of not only the National League Central, but quite possibly the entire league.

Chicago Cubs

For the better part of the last five seasons the Cubs had been desperate to cut their payroll in an attempt to truly start over from scratch in an effort to build a winning team. Their biggest roadblock; Alfonso Soriano, and the remainder of his $36 million contract. Up until a few days ago Cubs’ general manager had been near useless to the point that the late George Michael’s Sports Machine could have done a better job assembling a winner; however, Epstein brazenly picked up the phone and dialed the New York Yankees and convinced them to take Soriano off of their hands in exchange for a right-handed pitcher in the Class-A system… and agreed to pick up more than half of the tab on Soriano. This basically means that this new prospect, Corey Black, had better be a Cy Young contender in three to four years.

On the brighter side of things, the Cubs were also able to get rid of the ever-frustrating Carlos Marmol, Matt Garza, Scott Feldman, who are all free agents at the end of the season, and Scott Hairston in exchange for six additional prospects, four international signing slots, two players to be named later and a lot of salary relief. Essentially, the Cubs can freely spend a chunk of money in the offseason to help rebuild their woes quicker than expected. I’d give it at least two years before you see the Cubbies knocking on the door of the playoffs again.

St. Louis Cardinals

If you’re a St. Louis Cardinals fan and happen to be upset at the fact that your team didn’t actively pursue a backup catcher because of Yadier Molina’s recent injury, then you need to stop watching baseball. Molina’s freak knee injury occurred in the second half of their doubleheader with the Pittsburgh Pirates which also came 24 hours after the trade deadline. No one in their right mind could have ever imagined something so horrific to happen at the worst possible time, so you can’t really fault anyone for not pulling that trigger. At the same time though, one could say that general manager John Mozeliak dropped the ball by not moving slumping outfielder Jon Jay and shortstop Pete Kozma in an attempt to beef up their batting order.

Pittsburgh Pirates

With the fate of the NL Central in their hands, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington elected to take a nap for the remaining 48 hours before the trade deadline as the team elected to not move or bring in a single player. Boring! While one could argue that the Pirates still retain the best record in all of baseball, the one fact that cannot be overlooked is the .243 team batting average which puts them in at 23rd in the Majors along with their 21st-best 420 runs scored. Just looking at the numbers, it’s a miracle that the Pirates even have a record over .500 and they certainly would have been a team who could benefit from a slugger who could at least put some runs on the board.

Cincinnati Reds

The Cincinnati Reds won the division just a year ago, yet like the Pirates, they did nothing at the deadline. With the amount of money they spent in the offseason it certainly made things difficult for them to acquire anyone. On top of that, they really didn’t want to lose anybody. The squad they have in place is arguably solid. Hopefully for their sake they can pull it together and overcome the hole they’ve dug themselves into.

Milwaukee Brewers

Seems like a power-hitting left fielder should have been on their shopping list, as well as a new second baseman, injury-free third and first baseman and maybe some pitching in their starting rotation and bullpen. Shoot! The whole team needs a facelift in the offseason. For as far out of the hunt as they are, it was a mercy to all the teams in the league that no deals were made.