It was revealed today that Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker has been playing with a fractured right hand since June 1. Tucker had been tearing it up for the Cubs until a head-first slide into second base during that game against the Cincinnati Reds. He has been mired in a nearly three-month slump ever since. Now, as Chicago heads into the stretch run, Tucker is sitting on the bench. Here is a look at the possible repercussions of this situation.
Tucker is a unicorn when healthy. He hits for average and power. He steals bases, takes walks, plays Gold Glove defense, and has a strong, accurate arm. That is something you rarely find in the sport. Now that Tucker has played for almost three months with a broken hand, most of those talents have eroded. It is hard to turn around a 95-mile-per-hour fastball with a fractured hand. Every flyball Tucker caught had to hurt as well. With an injured hand, it is a natural thing to both consciously and subconsciously make adjustments to minimize the pain.
Fans have seen those results, and it has not been good. Since the injury, Tucker’s OPS (on-base plus slugging) has dropped 97 points. His batting average has dropped 23 points. Tucker has managed only six home runs and 23 RBI in 63 games. In his 58 prior games, he had 12 homers and 39 RBI. Tucker also dropped a flyball in the outfield after the injury.
Beyond the results, though, how much has playing through this injury hurt Tucker’s recovery? If Craig Counsell had immediately put the star outfielder on the injured list, his hand would probably have healed in six to eight weeks. He didn’t do that. Now, it is late August, and Tucker is mired in the worst slump of his career and may still not be fully healthy. Tucker has developed bad habits at the plate because of the injury. Mentally, he is frustrated, and that has been on full display for everyone to see in recent weeks.
Tucker has to be completely drained from the pressure of playing through not only the pain and the slump, but also from the boos of the fans and the criticism in the media. Add to that the fact that he is a free agent at season’s end. Not only has his value diminished due to the situation, but many Cub fans don’t seem to want him back, which is ridiculous. Would Tucker even consider re-signing with the Cubs at this point? If he leaves in free agency, they lose him for nothing. They also lose Isaac Paredes, Hayden Wesneski, and Cam Smith, the players the Cubs traded for Tucker, for nothing.
During Tucker’s ordeal, Chicago has slumped with him. When he hurt his hand on June 1, the Cubs were sitting atop the NL Central with a record of 37-22. They were 5.5 games ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers. After last night’s win, the team now trails the Brewers by six games in the standings. Chicago’s offense has gone from scoring six runs a game to averaging a little over three runs per game since.
After playing through the pain for all this time, Chicago has finally pulled Tucker from the lineup for a physical and mental “reset.” He has sat through the team’s last three games. Top prospect Owen Caissie has been manning right field in Tucker’s absence. It is unclear how long this “reset” will last and whether it will deliver the desired results. What is clear is that the Cubs are trying to hold on to a wild-card spot without their All-Star right fielder in the lineup. When the team should be peaking for a playoff run, they are struggling.
No matter how the season ends, Chicago will head into the offseason in a bad situation. They will most likely lose Tucker now. Will free agents want to sign with them, knowing how the team handled his injury? Will other Cubs players look at the situation and wonder if that could be them next? It is not a good look for an organization, and it can fracture a team.
I put this situation squarely on the shoulders of Counsell. Tucker is a gamer and was willing to try to play through the injury, but Counsell should not have put him in that situation. As manager, he should have seen the big picture. He could not have known how much the situation would snowball, but he should have known that having a healthy Tucker heading into September was paramount. Now, his star right fielder is beaten down mentally and physically, and he is persona non grata with many Chicago fans through no fault of his own.
I am not sure that Counsell, who was the highest-paid manager in MLB history when he signed his contract with the Cubs, can fix this now. I am not even sure he should be the one to try to fix it. If the Cubs struggle the rest of this season, Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins have to consider the possibility of letting Counsell go. On paper, this team should be much better than this. Before June 1, they were.
Counsell’s mismanagement has not just derailed Tucker’s season. His inability to recognize when to pull relievers derailed Ryan Pressly’s and Porter Hodge’s seasons, as well. The team’s desperation to get runs out of a struggling offense has led to the Cubs consistently running themselves out of innings on the basepaths. All of these things have cost Chicago wins. Trading for Tucker, and eventually extending him, should have been a monumental shift in the Cubs’ trajectory as a team. Until June 1, it had been. Now, that extension will most likely not happen, and the team is treading water with the playoffs less than six weeks away.
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