When the Cubs acquired Kyle Tucker in December fans rejoiced as he was the star they had been waiting years for. Tucker would instantly supercharge the Cubs’ lineup and give them some true pop. Cubs fans had dreams of him hitting bombs at Wrigley in playoff games and helping them to lift another World Series trophy.
After having his MVP caliber campaign cut short last season, Tucker would be entering a contract season with a new and exciting team. Cubs fans were happy, Kyle Tucker (and his bank account) were happy and all seemed to be right in Cubs land.
That is, until spring training happened.
You see, one of the players acquired in exchange for Tucker’s services was Cam Smith, an uber-talented third base prospect. While Smith was great, he barely made it to Double-A in his debut professional season. Cam Smith was expected to be a year or two away from reaching the majors.
A tale of two springs
But then, Smith lit up Spring Training. He ended spring hitting .342/.419/.711 for a jaw-dropping 1.129 OPS in 22 games. The entire MLB world took notice, and his promotion to the big league roster was both miraculous and heartwarming.
Meanwhile, Kyle Tucker didn’t put up nearly those numbers. In spring, Tucker hit .100/.243/.200 for an abysmal .443 OPS. To add insult to injury, the Cubs couldn’t reach an extension with Tukcer before the season, and he was set to enter the offseason as a free agent.
This of course, meant that Tucker would leave in free agency and that Cam Smith was a shoo-in for Cooperstown. According to Cubs Twitter, the sky was falling, the world was ending and the Cubs just repeated the Fernando Tatis Jr trade. How could Jed have made such a critical error?
Turns out that spring doesn’t matter
But as the real season began, it turned out that none of that mattered. Sure, Cam Smith could still become a really good player, but the reality is that Kyle Tucker was who he was advertised to be. The reason he was so pricey to acquire was that it turns out he is, in fact, a very good player. He is a superstar for a team that has lacked one for years.
So far, Tucker has posted a slashline of .250/.357/.583 for a .940 OPS. He also homered in back to black night against the Diamondbacks. It’s a small sample size, but Tucker clearly found another gear once the games started to actually matter. He leads the Cubs in homers, OBP, Slugging %, and RBI.
Tucker is a cautionary tale about making assumptions based on sub-par Spring training numbers. He has been one of the game’s best players for the past four seasons. It was unreasonable to assume his play would fall off a cliff by joining the Cubs. Tucker is still relatively young at 28 years old and has had no major injuries so far in his career. He has plenty of great baseball left in him and is due for a massive payday this offseason. Hopefully, for the Cub’s sake, they are the team cashing the check.
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