Earlier this week ESPN’s Jesse Rogers first reported what most of us already kind of figured and it was that something was physically wrong with Kyle Tucker. The All-Star right fielder initially injured his right ring finger on June 1, against the Cincinnati Reds. At first x-rays showed that there was no damage, but then follow-up tests revealed that there was indeed a fracture at the top of Tucker’s hand, where his pinky and ring finger meet.
By now, that injury has healed, but the damage has been done. This entire situation sucks and there’s really no clear-cut time when Tucker should have been placed on the injured list. Again, the injury happened on June 1, and then he proceeded to post a .982 OPS for the rest of the month. But it’s obvious that things eventually got to a point where Tucker was drastically changing his swing and the results suffered.
And we’re not talking about a guy slumping for a week or two or even a month. From June 29 through Aug. 18, Tucker slashed .191/.323/.243. A .565 OPS over 167 plate appearances in which Tucker only hit one home run in 39 games before the Cubs finally decided to sit him out for a few days.
Via ESPN.
“There’s no question that when you look at his numbers, it’s had an impact on him, for sure,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said recently. “That’s the nature sometimes of these small injuries. They can do that.”
Tucker, who was at one point a top-five hitter in the National League this year, has been the worst hitter in MLB during the month of August.
Things got so bad and the frustration for Tucker reached a point that he didn’t run out a few ground balls, got booed by Cubs fans at Wrigley Field and then was eventually given time to reset on the bench this week. It all seemed fine as rookie outfielder Owen Caissie replaced Tucker in right and contributed to the Cubs beating the Brewers three straight games and then Craig Counsell put Tucker back in the lineup in Thursday’s series finale.
The timing of all this has been awful. First, I get that back in June when Tucker was still putting up big numbers with his injury you give it a pass. However, there was enough evidence in July that something was obviously making Kyle Tucker awful at the plate. Whether it was right after the All-Star break or even at the beginning of August, the Cubs probably should have sidelined Tucker for 10 days.
They didn’t. OK, so maybe the issue was more about Tucker changing his mechanics that led to bad habits, which is how it looks like right now. So, this mini break to reset should have happened weeks ago and actually give him a break! The Cubs sat him down for two days and then bam Tucker was back in the lineup Thursday.
Players are almost always going to want to play even when dealing with an injury. And well that’s what the Cubs had with Tucker.
Tucker has been asked repeatedly about the finger, choosing not to use it as an excuse.
“I’m fine,” Tucker said Tuesday. “I’ve played, for the most part, every game this year. I’m fine going out there.”
We now know that he wasn’t and even when the injury got better it made him change his mechanics and the result?
Just no idea if Tucker is going to figure it out any time soon. No idea how the Cubs will handle his playing time if he continues to struggle. Shitty situation.
