Paul Sullivan: Why keep watching the Chicago Cubs? The reasons may be hard to find, but young players can be worth keeping an eye on.

Searching for reasons to continue watching the Chicago Cubs in this post-sell-off stretch may be difficult, but they’re there if you look hard enough.

Kyle Hendricks’ starts are always worthwhile viewing. The maturation of Willson Contreras into the centerpiece of the team figures to be an interesting storyline. And the development of young pitchers Justin Steele, who will be called up from Triple-A Iowa on Tuesday for his first start, and reliever Codi Heuer, who has excelled since coming over from the South Side last week in the Craig Kimbrel trade, deserves our undivided attention.

If you’re watching solely to see the Cubs win ballgames, you’ve come to the wrong place, as evidenced by the results of the City Series against the White Sox.

But unless you became a Cubs fan in 2015 or later, you certainly know the drill.

Trying to develop the young talent on the roster, or the players coming up soon from Iowa, might take precedence over the need to actually win the game.

“I think you can do both,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said Sunday before the finale of the City Series. “If this were solely a development time for us, then we’d tell Codi, ‘You’re going to pitch this day. Then you’re going to have a day off, then a bullpen, and work on the side.’ But that’s not the case.

“We’re like, ‘You’re available to pitch, (Heuer). Manny Rodríguez, you’re going to be available to pitch and pitch high-leverage innings.’ … We’ll be smart about it, but we wouldn’t come out here if we didn’t want to win the games. I know what you mean. Guys are working on things in spring training and taking them into games. We’re doing a lot of those things here.”

Cubs fans already have seen some of that with the ongoing development of Adbert Alzolay, who has had ups and downs but showed Saturday what it can be like when he has everything working. The addition of Steele, as well as Iowa’s Keegan Thompson in a few weeks, will give the Cubs three young starters in the rotation.

That could spell the end for Zach Davies, who served up three home runs in a five-run first inning Sunday, or Jake Arrieta, who has struggled since May. So be it. Ask some old-timer what it was like in 1987, when the bloom of the ‘84 success had worn off and young starters Greg Maddux and Jamie Moyer lost a combined 29 games and had ERAs over 5.00.

Both enjoyed long, successful careers. Everyone has to go through a learning process. Nothing is ever easy.

It might behoove Cubs fans to move past the anger stage of this grieving process over the Big 3 and accept the fact some of your favorite players are gone. It’s obvious ownership underestimated how upset the fan base would be to lose Kris Bryant, Javier Báez and Anthony Rizzo, which Chairman Tom Ricketts alluded to in a recent interview on his TV network.

“I have the same emotional reaction that a lot of the fans did,” Ricketts told Marquee Sports Network of the sell-off. “Frankly, if I didn’t see the big picture, I probably would have sent myself a nasty email.”

Nasty emails are cathartic, so by all means continue to send one to Ricketts if you can locate his email address. He might even answer, though he has yet to answer our longstanding request for an interview. Either way, once you’ve hit send, it’s time to move on.

Thanks to modern technology, you can check the box scores on your smartphones in real time and catch up on all the ex-Cubs in your life. It should be noted, however, that Sunday was a particularly bad day to be an ex-Cub.

Rizzo tested positive for COVID-19 after one week with the New York Yankees and will be out at least 10 days, including the “Field of Dreams” game with the White Sox on Thursday in Dyersville, Iowa. Báez, now a New York Met, exited Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies with a hip injury. The San Francisco Giants’ Bryant and the Atlanta Braves’ Joc Peterson were hitless, and Boston Red Sox first baseman Kyle Schwarber suffered a setback in his rehab from a hamstring injury, further delaying his return. St. Louis Cardinals starter Jon Lester, who allowed the first seven baserunners to reach in his Cardinals debut Tuesday, allowed five runs in 5⅓ innings against the Kansas City Royals.

And those are just the ex-Cubs that team President Jed Hoyer dumped. There will be better days for all concerned, perhaps even in October.

The New Era Cubs will surely take some getting used to. Now that the shock value has worn off, it gets a little easier by the day.

“It’s definitely weird and definitely different,” Hendricks said of losing so many teammates at the same time. “Especially the first 48 hours and just coming into the clubhouse and not seeing the same guys. But when I thought about it, it was really more weird and rare to play with those guys for so long.

“Once they were gone, after two days and we’ve got new faces around here, this is starting to feel more normal, to be honest, because this is our whole life in baseball. Growing up, all the way through high school, college, minor leagues, you’re always jumping team to team and playing with different guys.

“This reminds me of how it used to be. Just take the positives and all the memories and everything that was so special about playing with that solid group for that long a period of time.”

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Hendricks, now the longest-tenured Cub, recalled being brought to Wrigley Field in September 2013 with Báez. The two were being honored as the Cubs minor-league pitcher and player of the year, respectively.

“I was bright-eyed, taking it all in,” Hendricks said. “I had no idea. I would have never thought it would turn into this.”

Eight years from now, one of the young players getting his first taste of Wrigley this month might look back fondly at his debut during this turbulent post-deadline period of Cubs history.

You never know which players will one day turn into one of your favorites.

It’s why you keep watching.