MINNEAPOLIS — Pete Crow-Armstrong’s transcendent season cannot be taken for granted. The Chicago Cubs are looking for impact talent ahead of the July 31 trade deadline because they know the “PCA for MVP” campaign is a phenomenon, and they recognize the group’s consistent effort and focus in the clubhouse. The front office will share in that competitiveness.

With a 55-38 record and a two-game lead in the National League Central, the Cubs have easily cleared the first threshold and committed to buying. The next step is determining whether this team is good enough to win a World Series, and then acting accordingly to increase those odds.

Competence and steadiness are not flashy qualities, but being able to minimize the down periods is essential in a 162-game season. For more than three months, the Cubs have spent every day in first place, and their longest losing streak is three games. They know how to solve problems.

After two quiet nights without a lead at Target Field, the Cubs bounced back as Crow-Armstrong hit his 24th and 25th home runs in Thursday afternoon’s 8-1 win over the Minnesota Twins to avoid the three-game sweep and reframe his numbers in a historical context.

“We’ve done a really good job of not letting series get away from us (and staying) on the right side of things,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Noon game, quick turnaround, and then we got to go fly to New York and play in the Bronx. It could be easy to kind of lay down for the last day. That’s just such a testament to everybody in this room.”

Here’s a look at where things stand heading into this weekend at Yankee Stadium:

• The Cubs’ financial books are generally clean after 2026. Club officials view this season and next year as clear opportunities to make deep postseason runs. With that in mind, rental players won’t be their lone focus. Remember how the Cubs opportunistically approached last year’s deadline, adding Nate Pearson and Isaac Paredes in different trades, with future seasons in mind.

Pearson hasn’t established himself yet, but Paredes wound up being a key piece in the Kyle Tucker trade. Adding a player with multiple years of control at a reasonable cost — both in terms of contract size and prospects given up — would improve the 2025 team while also reducing the free-agent needs this upcoming winter.

• The Pittsburgh Pirates and Miami Marlins are among the very small group of teams that actually have some interesting starters and relievers on Chicago’s radar — Mitch Keller, Andrew Heaney, David Bednar, Edward Cabrera, Sandy Alcantara — along with obvious motivations to sell at the trade deadline. It’s not like the Colorado Rockies are overflowing with pitching talent.

The weakened state of the American League and the presence of additional wild-card berths will likely push most major decisions closer toward the July 31 deadline. The Cubs will be paying attention to how certain bubble teams perform coming out of the All-Star break, knowing that Merrill Kelly and Seth Lugo would be intriguing fits if the Arizona Diamondbacks and Kansas City Royals, respectively, elect to reload for the future.

• Health is always a consideration, and the Cubs will be monitoring the returns of two starting pitchers in particular: Jon Gray and Tanner Houck.

The Texas Rangers, yet another team in baseball’s vast middle, might be more inclined to move Gray, who has not yet thrown a major-league pitch this year due to a fractured right forearm. While Gray will become a free agent this offseason, the Boston Red Sox can keep Houck under club control through 2027. Assuming he’s fully recovered from a right flexor pronator strain, Houck would be one of many pitchers the Cubs see as open to both short- and long-term adjustments, leveraging what they believe is a strong pitching infrastructure.

• Chicago’s pitcher-friendly environment makes Michael Soroka another name to file away. It’s hard to predict what the Washington Nationals will do after the Lerner family ownership group fired general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez. If MacKenzie Gore somehow became available, there would be widespread interest, and the cost would be astronomical. Soroka would represent more of a buy-low move, betting that his peripherals play up when surrounded by an elite group of defenders.

Soroka entered Thursday with the highest strikeout rate of his career (26.2 percent), a walk rate of 6.4 percent and a ground-ball rate of 45.8 percent. His elevated ERA (5.40) is partially the result of pitching in front of one of the worst defenses in baseball. The Cubs have already seen several pitchers thrive with that change of scenery.

• The Cubs would prefer to add versatility to their bench rather than acquire just a pure right-handed, lefty-mashing hitter. With a remarkably healthy group of position players so far, the Cubs haven’t been forced to use that many backup plans. Moving Jon Berti into a regular role would not be ideal, so finding good insurance policies is a priority.

If the Red Sox and Twins decide to sell — again, if is the key word there — a pair of relevant names would be Rob Refsnyder and Willi Castro.

• Only three players in major-league history have reached 25/25 in terms of home runs and stolen bases faster than Crow-Armstrong’s 92 games: Eric Davis, Bobby Bonds and Alfonso Soriano. In franchise history, Crow-Armstrong’s 25 homers are tied with Billy Williams (1961) and Ron Santo (1963) for the second most in a single season by an age-23 or younger player. Completely replacing an MVP candidate for two months would be difficult, if not impossible, but the Cubs will have to prepare for that possibility just in case.

Assuming well-regarded prospect Kevin Alcántara doesn’t get traded this summer, the Cubs wouldn’t feel comfortable calling him up from Triple-A Iowa and installing him as their everyday center fielder. The Cubs have made these midseason moves before, acquiring Austin Jackson (2015), Leonys Martin (2017) and Cameron Maybin (2020) for depth.

Additional reporting from Chicago.

(Top photo: Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images)