This week's mailbag gets into the Cubs and Kyle Tucker, the Reds trading Nick Lodolo for a big bat this winter, Bo Bichette's contract, and offseason approaches for the Rays and Mets.
NE asks:
Do the Cubs and Kyle Tucker have any interest in an extension?
Tucker came out of the gates with a 157 wRC+ in 370 plate appearances through June. That performance put him basically in a dead heat with fellow All-Star starter Pete Crow-Armstrong and Shohei Ohtani with 4 WAR, at which point all three players were in the NL MVP race.
Tucker jammed his right ring finger on a June 1st slide. He continued to play well, but later revealed that "a week or two after that" x-rays found a hairline fracture. The narrative around the injury remains confusing.
Tucker posted a 173 wRC+ in June, the best month of his season. He homered on June 28th as part of a four-hit game. Then he went on to hit just one home run over his next 172 PA. So the idea is that Tucker played through this injury but it only began to sap his power four weeks later, perhaps due to some mechanical change to his swing.
By mid-August, Tucker was throwing his helmet, slamming his bat, failing to run out grounders, and getting booed by Cubs fans. On August 18th, Cubs manager Craig Counsell announced the plan to give Tucker a mental reset on the bench. The following day, Brewers manager Pat Murphy went on 670 The Score and said, "I think Tucker is hurt. I don't have any information, but Tucker's not the same. He's hurt, and he's playing through it. He's such a class kid that he probably doesn't mention it to anyone."
Murphy's comments caused the Cubs to fess up to Tucker playing through the hairline fracture. It was just a very odd way for this to all go down: the injury that didn't manifest itself for four weeks, and the reveal coming from a rival team's manager who either made a really good guess or actually did have some information.
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