The Cubs have been without Kyle Tucker since he exited Tuesday’s game against the Braves due to a calf issue, and it’s unclear when he’ll be returning to the lineup. Yesterday, manager Craig Counsell told reporters (as relayed by Marquee Sports Network on social media) that Tucker “didn’t really make progress” during Thursday’s day off, and would be out of the lineup for another day before adding that today would be a “big day” in terms of deciding how to proceed.
That language seemed to suggest that an injured list stint was in the cards for Tucker if he wasn’t healthy enough to return to the lineup today, and Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported that outfield prospect Owen Caissie was scratched from Triple-A Iowa’s lineup and brought to Chicago in case a roster move was necessary. Ultimately, however, Tucker remains day-to-day and out of the lineup without a roster move. Counsell told reporters (as noted by Marquee) today that the club thinks that they “have time to let this heal” without an IL stint, seemingly indicating that he’ll be back in the lineup within the next few days.
Injured list stints can be backdated a maximum of three days, meaning that if Tucker had gone on the shelf today he’d be eligible to return for next weekend’s series against the Rays. In that time, Caissie could have joined with fellow top prospect Kevin Alcantara to form a platoon in right field, with Pete Crow-Armstrong in center and Ian Happ in right while utility man Willi Castro and DH Seiya Suzuki serve as backup options in the outfield. Instead, the Cubs have opted to keep Tucker on the roster, with Suzuki and Castro splitting time in right field while Carlos Santana fills in at DH on days where Suzuki is in the outfield.
A roster move to bolster the outfield mix may yet be necessary, however. Crow-Armstrong exited today’s loss against the Nationals due to a knee contusion after fouling a ball off of his knee. As he told reporters (including Bruce Levine of 670 The Score) after the game, the incident has caused “a whole different kind of pain” than he’s used to. Crow-Armstrong went on to indicate that a decision on his status going forward won’t be made clear until tomorrow, but it seems feasible he might be ticketed for either an injured list stint or at least a few days off due to the injury. Having both Tucker and Crow-Armstrong unavailable on the bench would stretch the Cubs rather thin, given that both Justin Turner and Carlos Santana are limited to first base and DH duties only. Those two could handle DH while Suzuki, Castro, and Alcantara mix and match between right and center field, but that’s a less than ideal solution and simply placing one of their two ailing outfielders on the shelf to make room for Caissie may wind up being preferable.
The Cubs have the good fortune of having relatively little to play for over the final few weeks of the regular season. Fangraphs gives the club a 99.8% chance to secure a playoff spot this season, while their odds of surpassing the surging Brewers in the NL Central sit at a paltry 3.1%. With a Wild Card berth more or less guaranteed, Chicago could surely afford to place either Tucker or Crow-Armstrong (or, perhaps, both) on the injured list and fill out their roster with prospects at Triple-A already on the 40-man roster like Caissie and Moises Ballesteros if they think resting their stars could put them in a better position to win in October. Of course, with Crow-Armstrong slumping badly in recent weeks (.178/.225/.243 since August 1) and Tucker having recently broken out of his own slump, it’s also possible that they would benefit from getting as many reps as possible in order to get back on track before the playoffs.
a quick playoff exit awaits
Dodgers in 3.
Surely the Dodgers are doing great right now!
As long as our starters pitch complete games. We will be just fine!
The way they’re playing they won’t be sweeping anything but the floor.
It wasn’t a complete game it was 8 2/3 innings. Also the dodgers lost
The Cubs should have been resting PCA and Tucker more, in general. When they both started showing prolonged slumps, and bumps and bruises, they should have given them the time to heal. They brought up Alcantara and Caissie, and have done a piss-poor job of utilizing them. Counsell pinch hitting for Alcantara with Turner today was the icing on the cake. If you’re going to bring these guys up, you got to give them the opportunities. I know you have to do right by your veteran players, and some of those guys might have a little bit of pride, but you got to make the best decision for the team.
You should manage the Cubs!
What are the cubs chances at resigning Tucker? 10%? 20%?
50/50
They will or they won’t
TGO
“50/50
They will or they won’t”
Not sure if serious.jpeg
The is no way on earth Ricketts ponies up the $$ for any super high dollar FAs, Tucker or otherwise.
I would like to think that ownership/FO would recognize the transformative effect a true superstar like Tucker has on a team, and keep him in a Cubs uniform.
But this ownership group has never shown itself to possess that kind of vision or integrity, and I think they’ll protect their balance sheet with plausible deniability, and claim that they didn’t want to sign tucker because it would hold back Caissie & Alcantara, when in fact, it’s because ownership would rather pay the rookie controllable rate than pay market price for an established player in his prime.
So, I’d say zero percent chance they re-sign Tucker. Maybe those percentages shift if Tucker leads the Cubs on a World Series run, and it makes it too difficult for Cubs ownership to squirm out of a long-term Tucker deal.
The mismanagement of Kyle Tucker’s right hand hairline fracture this summer might actually give the Cubs a better shot of re-signing him this offseason. If Tucker was able to maintain his torrid start with the help of a needed IL stint back in June he might have priced himself out of the Cubs ‘comfort zone’ as MLB’s top free agent this winter.
The irony hasn’t escaped me that the better Tucker does for the Cubs this year makes it increasingly likely it’ll price him above what Cubs ownership is willing to pay. I think the only hope is that Tucker somehow achieves a mythological status that makes the heat of public outcry too much to *not* sign him.
Either way it goes, I’m really happy having Tucker on the team this year. 2025 has been a lot more enjoyable than I anticipated, especially seeing how I’m not terribly confident that Rickett’s ownership will result in that outcome too many times.
I don’t think tuckers struggles while battling through an injury really affect the cubs chances of resigning him. Even if it manages to hurt his earnings at all, he may also prefer to play somewhere that the fans didn’t boo him during that slump. It’ll also depend on overall just who gives him the best offer.
The biggest chance the cubs would have to have him on the team next year, still isn’t very likely, and that’s if he feels his earning power is going to be hurt and accepts a qualifying offer. I’d say other than that slim chance, he almost assuredly plays elsewhere next year. Because even if he declines the qualifying offer, I’d assume he’ll have wide open options of where to play on a one year pillow contract and may prefer a brief Houston reunion or somewhere closer to home if perhaps the Braves or rays offer him a big one year deal.
I’d put his chances on being a cub next year at 5% though, and even that feels generous.
The fact that the geniuses at Wrigley booed the guy when he was playing through an injury hurts his chances of staying more than most would ever admit. He never did or would have heard that in Houston. It hurt him.
Absolutely Zero. He’s been mentally checked out since about the first of June.
One chance in a million.
“…his status going forward won’t be mad until tomorrow…”
😡
Fire Counsell
Let Tucker walk
Sign Schwarber to 3 or 4yr deal for 110mill plus
We need pitching and BP bad, not overspend on a OF
Stuck with him
He’s running, not walking
Not enough money
Cubs tried that last year
Your 3 and 4 kinda contradict each other. You say you need pitching and a bullpen, and not to overspend on an OF, but suggest to sign someone who’s going to command a record deal for a DH basically.
It’d be a better suggestion for them to sign a big ticket starter and some solid relief help, and then trade for some kind of impactful bat. Their lineup is young and solid enough to where even with Tucker walking, if they need to spend on pitching, they can do that and then just trade for someone with some veteran leadership and impact in the lineup.
Jed Hoyer’s ideas for roster construction still leave me shaking my head. Congratulations to the team and Hoyer for having a great season so far. But when you are leading the division in payroll by 70-80 million dollars but not actually leading the division, there needs to be a degree of humility in the celebration.
I’m pretty sure only 2 divisions are led by the team with the highest payroll, maybe 3 depending on the AL Central. But I don’t know who has the highest payroll there, because none of them are really big spenders anymore. But only the dodgers and Astros likely have the highest payrolls in their division and actually lead it, and in the dodgers case, it’s not by very much.
So it is 3. The tigers do have the highest payroll in their division. The royals are about 20-25 million below them. But when you look at the fact that the dodgers have the second highest payroll in baseball and only have a one game lead, and the Mets have the highest payroll in baseball and aren’t even the division lead, shows that payroll doesn’t always equate to a division win. It Increases your chances for certain, but overall you can’t always buy titles.
Always amazed how much smarter fans are than management…
Amen, Provost. I might add that fans are also much better at spending other people’s money.
The family that owns this team are not interested in winning, they have no baseball knowledge and rely on consultants on any baseball decisions. As long as Crane Kenny, a lone holdover from the Tribune is there, the sole purpose is making money not having a successful baseball team.
You just perfectly described the Pohlads in Minnesota.
Hardly matters losing Tucker and pca, we have palencia to close games in this meaningful month!
Bottom line if you want your young players to flourish in the majors you have to get rid of CC, he is one manager that will ruin 90% of them. You wanna be successful with a young team yes sign Schwarber and play them. He will lead them and also protect them in the media and line up. Find a manager like Murph who knows how to lead them and also show them some tough love at the same time. Maybe a Skip Schumacher, Mike Redmond or Mark DeRosa.
There is no need to have commas on either side of “perhaps.”