'Neutral' Cubs sound like they're about to waste another deadline with Jed Hoyer

At some point, the Chicago Cubs are going to have to figure out what they are and go from there. Through the first two months of the season, the Cubs find themselves in second place in the NL Central and hovering around .500. At 29-31 through 60 games, they are a full seven games back of the Milwaukee Brewers, a team we all thought was going to pull back considerably. Look at them now!

As for the Cubs, they have honestly been a disappointment up to this point of the campaign. They are coming off a miserable May, a month where they went a dreadful 10-18. But even though they are probably not going to catch the Brew Crew and win the division, they still have so much to play for. You have to wonder if they are going to be buyers or sellers heading into the MLB trade deadline.

In Jeff Passan's latest for ESPN.com, he did his best to identify all 30 MLB franchises as a buyer, a seller, or something in between. He settled on the Cubs being tweeners, meaning it could go either way. While he applauds Jed Hoyer's practical nature in this, Passan knows the Cubs president of baseball operations must make a decision here soon. Sadly, the Cubs seem to be stuck in neutral.

The big question is what will be the tipping point for this team, and what direction will they go in.

Jed Hoyer cannot straddle the fence with the Chicago Cubs this deadline

If the season were to end today, the Cubs would actually be in a position to make the playoffs. They would have to beat the hated St. Louis Cardinals in a win-or-go-home game to earn the No. 6 seed as the third NL Wild Card team, looking up at the Atlanta Braves and the San Diego Padres as the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, respectively. If the Cubs have a bad June like they did in May, they might be sellers.

Maybe Hoyer can unload Ian Happ or Jameson Taillon's contracts to a contender in the hopes of freeing up salary and getting younger for next season? It is probably an easier sell to be sellers than buyers right now. This is because Chicago may not have enough on its roster to merit going all-in in a season where they are probably going to come up short of getting to the NLCS. I don't blame them.

What I think is the most frustrating is Hoyer seems to be comfortable straddling the fence and not picking which side to inevitably go over to. Does he want to go for gold or does he want to rebuild? Either way, a choice must be made. Since the Cubs were my pick to win the NL Central this year, I would side with going for it, but I can totally understand if that is not in the cards for them right now.

All I know is another trade deadline where there is very little activity is not good enough for the Cubs.