CHICAGO — We’re still two months away from the MLB trade deadline, but that certainly doesn’t mean it’s out of mind for the Chicago Cubs or their fans.

Expect to hear plenty of rumors surrounding the Cubs over the next couple of months, as they are firmly in the NL playoff race and expect to be buyers.

President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer shed some light on the areas he and his front office will look to address in July: Pitching, pitching and more pitching.

[MORE: Cubs adding veteran reliever to bullpen mix]

“To quote our manager, we just need to get outs, you know?” Hoyer said Tuesday. “And so we have to figure that out, whether it’s the beginning of the game or the end of the game. [Our depth has] been tested, and we have to assume that that’s not going to stop, that we’ll continue to be tested. We have to continue to find depth where we can find it.

“Ultimately, it is going to be somewhat sellers’ market dependent. If there’s none of one of those things available, you have to zag a little bit, and you have to be prepared to do that. And that could be the nature of this market.”

The Cubs’ focus on pitching should come as no surprise. They have the best offense in baseball — they entered play Wednesday with 18 more runs than the next closest team (Los Angeles Dodgers) — but they also have spent the first two months of the season piecing things together on their pitching staff.

The Cubs currently are without their top two starters (Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga), arguably their best reliever (Porter Hodge) and three other depth arms (Javier Assad, Tyson Miller, Eli Morgan), all of whom are on the IL.

Steele is out for the season after having elbow surgery, but the Cubs hope to have Imanaga back within the next couple weeks, and Assad also could help boost the rotation at some point down the line.

[WATCH: Justin Steele visits broadcast booth during Tuesday’s Cubs win]

In the meantime, the Cubs have held down the fort with a starting staff that consists of reliable veterans Jameson Taillon, Matthew Boyd and Colin Rea, in addition to two young right-handers (Ben Brown, Cade Horton).

But Brown has struggled with a 6.39 ERA in 11 games (10 starts), Horton is just a few weeks into his MLB career, and Boyd hasn’t thrown more than 80 innings in a season since 2019 because of a variety of injuries.

The bullpen has been solid overall (3.89 ERA, which ranks 16th in MLB), but the Cubs have blown eight saves in 21 chances and are on their third “closer” of the season (even though manager Craig Counsell doesn’t like labeling players in that role). Ryan Pressly began the season with ninth-inning duties, but he struggled and was demoted, leaving Hodge to take over briefly before landing on the IL. Daniel Palencia since has stepped up to convert save chances.

So, in a perfect world, the Cubs would be in the market for a starter and a high-leverage reliever — at a minimum. But as Hoyer indicated, it might be difficult to find an arm in one of those areas, so the Cubs simply are focused on adding pitching however they can find it.

Entering play Wednesday, just five teams truly seemed out of the running — the disappointing Baltimore Orioles and four rebuilding teams (Chicago White Sox, Miami Marlins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies). The other 25 teams are within 6.5 games of a playoff spot — and almost every contending team is in the market for pitching at the deadline.

That’s why Hoyer believes it will be a sellers’ market.

“Certainly trending that way,” he said. “Obviously, yes, it’s early. And inevitably, there’s two months to deadline — there’s going to be teams that get hit by injuries or just play poorly and then decide to be opportunistic or fall out of it.”

The Cubs will keep their eyes on the market — and the standings — over the next two months and look for opportunities to pounce.