As All-Star break ends, Cubs trade watch begins

Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer is gearing up for his second trade deadline at the helm. File photo.A less experienced Chris Martin would have been pondering his fate as the calendar hurtled toward the trade deadline.

“I’ve been in this situation before,” the Cubs reliever told the Sun-Times. “I’ve been in clubhouses before when guys have been traded. I’ve been around it a bunch, so no, at this point I’m not thinking about it.”

So has the organization as a whole, just last year, in fact. And last year the dramatic trade deadline sell-off began coming out of the All-Star break. Outfielder Joc Pederson was the first to go, as the Cubs traded away one-third of their Opening Day…