CHICAGO — After weeks — perhaps months — of anticipation, the Cubs’ trade deadline is done and dusted.

President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and his front office acquired right-handed pitcher Michael Soroka from the Washington Nationals on Wednesday and followed the move with three deadline-day acquisitions Thursday: Reliever Andrew Kittredge from the Baltimore Orioles, utilityman Willi Castro from the Minnesota Twins and reliever Taylor Rogers from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Most notably, Hoyer did not acquire a big-name starting pitcher — a move the Cubs were reportedly in on, whether it was the Nationals’ MacKenzie Gore , the Miami Marlins’ Sandy Alcántara or the Twins’ Joe Ryan.

The absence of a game-changing arm was a head-scratcher for many, given the plethora of injuries the Cubs’ starting rotation has faced this year.

Less than a month after Justin Steele was ruled out for the season in April, Shota Imanaga suffered a hamstring strain that kept him out for nearly two months. Imanaga returned in late June — but Jameson Taillon then hit the IL on July 4 with a strained right calf and has been absent from the rotation since.

Javier Assad, who made 29 starts for the Cubs last season, has yet to pitch in the big leagues this year due to a lingering oblique injury.

Naturally, the priority for the Cubs at the deadline was a starter — preferably one with years of club control so they wouldn’t risk giving up their highly regarded minor-league talent for a half-season rental.

But things didn’t work out that way, Hoyer told Marquee Sports Network’s Cole Wright in an exclusive post-deadline interview.

“It was a tight starting pitching market — very few rental starters,” Hoyer said. “Obviously, a lot of time, energy and focus was on controllable starters — the guys that everybody’s been talking about. Ultimately, none of those guys moved. We didn’t match their price, but no one else did either.”

Despite their names floating around the trade market for weeks, none of Gore, Alcántara, Ryan, or even the San Diego Padres’ Dylan Cease were traded away before the 5 p.m. CT deadline hit. The lack of action is a telltale sign of the steep asking price for each.

The Cubs’ top five prospects are all on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list: Owen Caissie (No. 36), Moisés Ballesteros (No. 47), Jefferson Rojas (No. 57), Kevin Alcántara (No. 75) and Jaxon Wiggins (No. 90). After the deadline, all five remain in the system — and Hoyer was firm in keeping it that way if it meant the Cubs didn’t get a marquee arm.

“It would have been so detrimental to our future that we decided against it,” Hoyer said in a press conference with the media on Thursday.

Hoyer didn’t specify which teams were asking for which prospects, but he did mention that Cade Horton was a name brought up more than once by other front offices in trade discussions.

“He came up with some trade discussions, and, you know, to trade a guy like him with his amount of control to get a guy with less control, it didn’t make a lot of sense — with a bunch of other pieces as well,” Hoyer said.

The Cubs had been operating with a core four of Imanaga, Matthew Boyd, Horton, and Colin Rea in the rotation. More recently, Ben Brown was recalled from Triple-A after a month-long stint in Iowa and has made two starts in the fifth spot.

Now, they have three new arms — two of which will join the bullpen in Kittredge and Rogers. Soroka made 16 starts with the Nationals this year, pitching to a 4.87 ERA with 87 strikeouts in 81.1 innings.

“He’s pitched well so far for Washington,” Hoyer told Wright of the Cubs’ decision to acquire the 27-year-old. “We actually tried to sign him this offseason, and got outbid a little bit by Washington. But he’s a guy we’ve liked for a long time.”