DENVER -- Plenty of Cubs fans had to explain the business side of baseball to their kids over the last several days. The youngsters with the names Báez, Bryant or Rizzo on the back of their jerseys received some tough news about their favorite players.

Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer cracked a pained smile when asked how his own sons reacted to Friday's franchise-altering Trade Deadline.

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"Dad was a bad guy the other night, for sure," Hoyer said ahead of the Cubs' 13-6 loss to the Rockies. "But, you try to explain it to them the best you can. And, listen, I understand the challenge of those conversations, because I have to have them myself."

In the wake of a furious Deadline that saw Javier Báez (Mets), Kris Bryant (Giants), Anthony Rizzo (Yankees) among the former Cubs to land in different uniforms, Hoyer made the trip to Denver for a series featuring a stripped-down roster.

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Both Hoyer and manager David Ross are now staring down a two-month evaluation period with 2022 and beyond in mind. It is a chance to give at-bats and innings to players who may or may not fit into the future puzzle, and to see if someone like Ian Happ (solo homer on Tuesday) can regain his offensive footing.

"I've talked to Rossy about that a lot," Hoyer said of the next two months of baseball. "[We'll be] using this time to sort some things out for the offseason. ... Even though it is dangerous to evaluate in August and September, I think we can get a sense for exactly what we have.

"And some of those things can be really valuable as we build towards the '22 season."

Ross said he hopes to have a growing voice as part of the Cubs' planning.

"Knowing that my experience is limited," Ross said, "I will love to continue to learn and grow in the acquisition aspect and things that I find important. I talk pretty regularly with Jed and the guys in the front office about things that I like and don't like about what we have.

"But also, yeah, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on each guy. I think it's a great opportunity for a lot of guys to prove where we can already have a foundation for next year and fill some of those holes."

And, what is the plan for 2022? That, Hoyer reiterated, remains to be determined.

"I never want to be disingenuous and say, 'Yeah, here's the exact plan,'" said Hoyer, echoing his comments after Friday's Deadline. "The fact is, you can't really lay out an exact plan when there's so many things that are uncertain."

Hoyer was referring, above everything else, to the reality that the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires after this season. Major League Baseball and the Players Association will be negotiating a new CBA over the offseason, establishing an operational playbook for teams to follow.

Hoyer noted that it was a similar situation when he and former Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein took over the front office prior to 2012. Back then, a new CBA altered the MLB Draft landscape and the team reacted with a long-term rebuilding plan.

That is where Hoyer said the similarities end.

"This is not going to be a 2012-13 situation," Hoyer said. "We're going to be looking to compete right away. But, what exactly that looks like, I think we want to make sure that the goal here is to build the next great Cubs team.

"That, to me, is the No. 1 goal. I don't have any interest in just sort of patching things up and saying, 'This is good enough.' I think that I said it the other day, and I mean it, the legacy of this group, ultimately, is that we changed the expectations here.

"That would've been perfectly acceptable before -- to compete for a Wild Card was OK. People now want to see what '15, '16 and '17 was again, and that's what they deserve. That's what we owe these fans now.

"When I say I don't know exactly when we're going to do that, it's more because I'm being honest. We have the ability to be opportunistic and we have the ability to pivot if things come up.

"We don't know exactly the rules of the game going forward. I think that's important."

What Hoyer does know is that he just turned two more months of multiple stars into a considerable group of prospect and controllable talent. The farm system is stronger for it and Chicago's payroll now has just north of $40 million in guaranteed salary on the books for next year.

Hoyer said he has not ruled out being aggressive in free agency next offseason, if the landscape dictates that as a smart approach. And he continued to note that he has not "closed any doors" when it comes to the departed core players.

"We made some difficult decisions this winter. We made some difficult decisions at the Deadline," Hoyer said. "And I feel like those are the right things to do for the Cubs. How we piece the puzzle together, I can't tell you exactly how all of it is going to go.

"But I'm totally confident, with the group I have working for me, and David Ross, I have total confidence we'll get it right."