10:02pm: Counsell publicly confirmed the June fracture but says Tucker is now healthy (via Rogers).
9:52pm: Cubs star Kyle Tucker suffered a hairline fracture in his right hand back in June, reports Jesse Rogers of ESPN. Tucker jammed his right hand diving into second base on a stolen base attempt in a game against the Reds on June 1.
Initial x-rays came back negative. However, Rogers writes that follow-up testing revealed a small fracture at the top of his hand between his ring finger and pinky. The Cubs did not announce the diagnosis at the time, and Tucker has not spent any time on the injured list. The four-time All-Star preferred to play through the injury.
In retrospect, it’s fair to question whether that was prudent. Tucker had been one of the best hitters in MLB for the season’s first two months. He owned a .284/.395/.524 slash with 12 homers across 269 plate appearances through June 1. Since then, he’s batting .236/.352/.368 in almost the exact same amount of playing time. Tucker has connected on six longballs over the past two and a half months.
While the injury certainly seems to be having an impact, it’s worth noting that Tucker actually continued to play well in the immediate aftermath. He hit .311 with five homers in June. It wasn’t until July that things went completely off the rails. He’s batting .189/.325/.235 with one homer in his past 38 games.
Tucker’s plate discipline remains strong — he has actually walked more often than he has struck out during that stretch — but his power has completely evaporated. His rate of hard contact (batted balls with an exit velocity of at least 95 MPH) was between 44-50% in each of the first two months. It remained solid at 42.9% in June but has plummeted below 30% in each of the past two months.
That kind of play from a hitter of Tucker’s caliber has naturally led to speculation about his health. Pat Murphy, manager of the Milwaukee team that is playing the Cubs this week, opined that the outfielder was playing through an injury. “I think Tucker’s hurt. I don’t have any information, but Tucker’s not the same,” Murphy said on 670 The Score.
Tucker himself has maintained that he’s physically ok. However, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer conceded to Rogers “that when you look at his numbers, it’s had an impact on him, for sure. That’s the nature sometimes of these small injuries. They can do that.” Cubs skipper Craig Counsell has kept Tucker out of the lineup for the past three games — two days, including a doubleheader on Tuesday. Chicago won all three games over the MLB-best Brewers with Owen Caissie playing right field. Counsell hasn’t committed to Tucker’s status for tomorrow’s series finale.
The Cubs remain six games back of Milwaukee in the NL Central. They’re comfortably in Wild Card position, which gives them the flexibility to mix in more off days for Tucker if necessary. They’ll need to find a way to get him back to being productive if they hope to make a deep playoff run. The injury and slump obviously come at an inopportune time for Tucker personally, as he’s a couple months from free agency. He’s the clear #1 player in the class and generally expected to command $400MM+ as he enters his age-29 season.
That is not surprising, it’s common for players to have their performance suffer due to undisclosed injuries.
Needless to say, bad timing for both Tucker and the Cubs.
They have Owen Caissie who has filled in rather well. Cubs are better off giving Tucker time off to correct himself and let Owen run with RF for now. When the league adjusts Tucker should be back healthy.
Tucker chose to play because of his contract year and it’s going to cost him.
Bart – I think it depends on how long he would have been out if he had the surgery immediately, but it’s not uncommon for players to play injured and in pain strictly to help the team.
For example Pedroia played the final two months of his 2007 ROY and World Series Championship season with a fractured hand. Every injury is different though.
Duh 🙄
Thats what I thought, makes sense he’s struggled and they’ve all kinda served him some crap for it. Dude is a trooper
Wanted to play through it now doing damage control for next year’s contract.
Someone will pay $400M. It won’t be Tom Rickets.
Fair enough, but who wouldn’t do both in his position
You got all the answers, Horace.
horace – He just missed 3 consecutive games in a big series, pretty sure that’s why the team had to finally reveal the injury.
Why would Tucker need to do “damage control” now? Wouldn’t have made a difference if the injury was revealed when the Cubs were done for the season. You do realize other teams can’t sign him to a free agent contract during this season, right?
Had Tucker continued to play like an MVP candidate, @horace would probably say that more guys need to be tough like him and play through injury. Tucker had every reason to go on the IL and take a rest but yet chose to play hurt during his walk year.
YBC – Agreed, I think it was a situation similar to Raffy last year where the pain was tolerable but has gotten worse over time.
Bregman is doing the same, dude hasn’t been able to run this week.
The Cubs Management are idiots. They wasted away last year with allowing Swanson to play thru a core injury and now this year with Tucker.
These two years have been a great example of poor roster construction with a lack of depth and more importantly it shows how Ricketts and Hoyer take fans for granted as long as the seats are filled they wont spend
Poor roster construction? Season started in March. You possibly couldn’t have missed all 115 games.
Easily one of the best balanced teams in baseball. Field well, run well, hit well, pitch well.
All three of the season opening rotation guys have missed significant time and they have been able to go six-seven deep with quality.
They have an “extended rough patch” which still produces over .500 ball.
Goes to show you that games in April are just as important as those in July.
The Orioles are perfect illustration of that. They have something like the top 4th record in baseball since late May. The hole they put themselves in over the first two months of the season was just too much to overcome. They would be a playoff contender right now otherwise, so those early games do have significance.
This is an outcome that many of us speculated on, so it’s not coming as a surprise to finally see it in a news headline.
I totally get the motivation to play through it. Though keyboard tough guys want to comfort their egos by claiming these players don’t care, they in fact do and want to keep getting out on the field and contributing. Sometimes they are able to play through the small injuries, sometimes not. Unfortunately, this ended up being the wrong injury to try playing through. Now the Cubs will give him some time off to rest and heal up.
Sadly, there are gonna be some clowns who will call Tucker selfish for trying to play through the injury. These are the same clowns who would’ve called Tucker selfish had he requested time off and then mocked him for doing it because of an injury to his pinky finger.
Your last paragraph is so sad, yet so true. Just realize those clowns have such low self esteem, they have to belittle everyone else. It’s one of the precious few things that makes them somehow feel better about themselves.
Tucker is a proud man, I’m quite sure. And I certainly don’t put the onus on him to try and perform at less than 100%, — there’s isn’t an everyday player who is 100% in the dog days of summer. The current regime for the Chicago National League Ball Club has displayed a remarkable propensity for turning a blind eye to the things the layman (ie. the common loyal fan) has observed for multiple weeks. And it happens year after year. It’s baffling.
I love the Cubs. I have loved them since 1960, when I was seven years old. I have never seen a front office be so unwilling to put injured players on the injured list. But this is yet another reason why they have dropped out of first place. The team seems to be getting their mojo back since Tucker has taken a seat to reflect, ponder, reset, meditate, medicate, etc. The trip out west will be a big test, and I remain skeptical that the Cubs have what it takes to do much in the playoffs. But that’s why they play the game, eh?
Ooh, a spoof account!
Wait you don’t think Alien53 could possibly be the cleverly disguised impossible to crack second username for Alan53 do you?
@Bucket: I don’t mind; what the guy says makes sense. I suppose he is trying to hate on me, but boys and girls, I got worse (health) problems.
After tomorrow not a single game against a team with a winning record until 9/18.
Your alter ego would tell us how a 1-8 trip is on the horizon. Can hardly wait.
Oh man! Jed got it wrong AGAIN! I think John Mozeliak is the most incompetent front office exec in baseball, but Jedi is his spirit animal.
Good thing the Cubs aren’t committed to Jed. They can just launch him at season’s end, no?
Good thing the White Sox aren’t committed to Reinsdorf. They can just launch him at season’s end, no?
So, he had this injury and yet still ran Tucker out instead of giving him a 15-day IL stint? Cubs management is fool of morons…
Someone have an organ, grinder, top hat, red pinstripe top, and a monkey they can lend for a little performance art thingy at the corner of Clark and Addison? Asking for a friend.
“While the injury certainly seems to be having an impact, it’s worth noting that Tucker actually continued to play well in the immediate aftermath. He hit .311 with five homers in June.”
Maybe underselling it a tad. June was his best full month. He slashed .311/.404/.578/.982. Interesting that the injury occurred on June 1. Wonder if something exacerbated the pain later on or if there was just the cumulative effect of trying to play through it.
I’d lean more toward the latter cause (cumulative effect), but it really could be both. Just the general everyday amount of stress placed upon the body of a pro athlete is probably enough to move the dial on making a smallish injury something more significant and/or lingering, but there’s no end to the kinds of shocks to the system that could exacerbate things to a whole ‘nother level.
I surmise it to be a mechanical issue. He likely compensated elsewhere with his grip, or some such, and now it’s got him out of whack. His walk and K rates have remained in line with career norms, he just stopped driving the ball with any consistency or authority. Let’s hope a few days on the sidelines gives him the opportunity to get Ye Olde Salty Dog seaworthy again. Cubs need him for the stretch run. Good to see Cassie performing admirably in his absence.
“Maybe underselling it…trying to play thru it”…There’s probably never a year where professional athletes don’t have to try to play thru some injury.
It’s just the downside of being a professional athlete, but no team wants you if every time you get a bruise, you miss 2 months of action.
Dude was out last year 3 months with a “bruised shin”. Rub some dirt on it dude.
Not sure who makes the final call here: Could the Cubs have “forced” Tucker to go on the injured once the fracture was verified? Is it always up to the player himself whether he goes on the injured list or not?? I can see how this is a gray area, but I would think there should be some ironclad protocols in place that protect both the player and the team. The incentives are such that letting the player play thru the pain ultimately Wins the day. But I’m not sure if that’s the appropriate way to settle this conundrum.
It’s a collaborative decision. If the docs deem that he can’t further injure his hand and Tucker is fine with pain management (via cortizone shot possibly), I don’t see a reason to force the issue.
another reason why I am so fundamentally opposed to the concept of the rental trade. one injury could blow your entire investment.
Maybe got hand caught in cookie jar
Hes trying to make as many excuses as possible for having a down season in his contract year. Albert Pujols missed 2 weeks with a broken wrist in his contract year in the earlier 2010s and was shattering records. Though I am a believer that Pujols was more likely then not allegedly taking something to aid in his performs, just like how he lied about his age
You’d think in the era of sports betting there would be a bit more transparency…thats a long time to not say anything