The Chicago Cubs entered the MLB trade deadline with one clear goal in mind, and unfortunately, they did not meet it. Which has led to Levi Weaver of The Athletic (subscription required) describing their deadline in one word that fans will be disappointed to read: “timid.

What makes it even more concerning is that the Cubs knew Soroka had experienced a slight dip in his velocity in his starts leading up to the trade deadline. Soroka underwent an MRI just to rule out anything problematic, with all of the results coming back clean.

The Cubs had extensive conversations about right-hander Michael Soroka’s drop in velocity before acquiring him at the trade deadline, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said Tuesday. They were well aware of his injury history.