Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker hasn’t played in a big league game since fouling a ball off his leg on June 3. The club placed him on the 10-day injured list shortly thereafter, listing his injury as a right shin contusion, and it seemed like a short absence was possible. But weeks gradually turned into months without much progress being made towards a return and now Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports that Tucker suffered a fractured shin, even though it was never framed that way to reporters.
As noted by Rome, the club has described the injury using terms such as a “deep bruise of the bone” or a “shin contusion” but never used the word “fracture”. As recently as Saturday, general manager Dana Brown responded in the negative when asked if Tucker had a fracture, though he seemed to cop to it today.
“After several rounds of medical imaging, we suspect there was some type of small fracture,” Brown said this morning. “As with all injuries of this type, once the fracture heals it takes time for the muscles around the leg to regain strength. Tuck has worked extremely hard to get back on the field and thankfully is ready now to help us in September and in the postseason.”
The news at least provides some clarity on why Tucker’s absence has extended for as long as it has, but it does raise other questions. If it took the club three months to find the fracture, what took so long? If they knew all along, why keep it a secret? Members of the media have often expressed frustration about a lack of information coming from the club about its injured players. When Dusty Baker was still the manager, he would often cite HIPAA laws as a reason for not providing health updates (X links from Rome), despite the fact that other clubs regularly provide such information. Rome has also relayed (X link) that the club doesn’t make its trainer available to the media and says it is against the collective bargaining agreement, which is not true. He’s also relayed that the trainer has, in the past, discouraged players from speaking to the media about their injuries (X link). It seems this Tucker incident could perhaps be the latest and most extreme example of a strange organizational pattern.
Regardless, Tucker is now nearing a return. Pet Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle on X, manager Joe Espada said that Tucker is now running the bases at about 85% intensity and could rejoin the club soon.
Tucker was having an incredible season before the injury, hitting .266/.395/.584 for a 175 wRC+ through 60 games, in spite of a subpar .245 batting average on balls in play. Since the landed on the IL, the Astros have given right field playing time to each of Chas McCormick, Ben Gamel, Jason Heyward, Mauricio Dubón, Trey Cabbage, Pedro León and Joey Loperfido before he was traded to the Blue Jays. Gamel is the only one in that group to have produced above-average offense this year and his output is propped up by a .410 BABIP in his 70 plate appearances, so getting Tucker back will obviously be a boost to the Astros.
