Kyle

Tucker

Tucker broke out with two home runs against the Angels on Saturday. Angels pitching mostly stayed away from Tucker after his RBI single in the third inning as he was issued two walks. He’s hitting .262 with an .839 OPS and 69 RBI this year.

Tucker’s homers were projected at 399 and 394 feet. Both came off guys who ought to have been in Triple-A, but Tucker is far from the first to advantage of such a situation this year. It’s his ninth career game with two homers and fifth with five RBI.

Tucker took Angels veteran lefty Tyler Anderson deep for his lone hit in four at-bats. It was an extremely encouraging sign to see the 28-year-old fantasy star drive the ball with authority after being mired in a prolonged offensive tailspin for the better part of the last two months attempting to play through a hairline fracture in his right hand. The hope for the Cubs, and fantasy managers, is that he’s fully healthy again and was able to clean up his swing mechanics during his recent mental break.

It’s going to take some time for Tucker to get back on track after playing through a hairline fracture in his right hand adversely impacted his swing mechanics and led to a prolonged slump at the dish. The 28-year-old fantasy superstar is reportedly healthy at this point after suffering the injury back in early June, which means there’s some reason for optimism he’ll revert to form at some point soon.

What’s the rush? It was revealed last night that Tucker has been dealing with a hairline fracture in his hand since June, and the Cubs won all three games with him out of the lineup, including a doubleheader sweep on Tuesday. Top propsect Owen Caissie, who went 3-for-8 with a homer and four RBI over those three games, is on the bench during Thursday’s series finale at Wrigley Field. The encouraging news is that the Cubs believe Tucker is fully recovered from the injury and the time off was spent attempting to fix his swing mechanics, which were impacted by playing through the lingering issue.

Rogers adds that Tucker suffered the injury while sliding into second base on June 1. Initial X-rays came back negative, but subsequent imaging revealed a slight fracture. This certainly helps explain Tucker’s prolonged struggles since the start of July as playing through the lingering issue began to impact his swing mechanics and led to an offensive tailspin. The 28-year-old impending free agent sat out his third consecutive game on Wednesday in an effort to reset mentally and hopefully get him back on track heading into the final five weeks. Cubs manager Craig Counsell confirmed the report during Wednesday’s postgame media availability and added that Tucker is completely healed at this point.

As expected, Tucker will sit out both games of Tuesday’s twin bill as the Cubs attempt to give him an extended mental break. The 28-year-old fantasy superstar has been mored in an extended second-half slump, batting .182 (16-for-88) with one homer and three steals in 26 games since the All-Star break. His extensive track record of elite production suggests he’ll turn things around soon. He went through a similar slump a couple years ago during one of Houston’s postseason runs before getting back on track.

Tucker, who went 0-for-4 in the front-end of Monday’s twin bill against the Brewers, has been mired in an extended tailspin at the plate in recent weeks, hitting .182 (16-for-88) with one homer and three steals in 26 games since the All-Star break. The 28-year-old fantasy superstar put together a phenomenal first half with 17 round-trippers and 22 thefts in 95 games. He needs to start putting the ball in the air more frequently if he’s going to break out of the funk. Given his extensive track record of success, we’re anticipating Tucker getting back on track at some point.

Three grounders followed by a can of corn. Tucker’s exit velocities today were 74, 74, 88 and 81 mph. He also didn’t have a single hard-hit ball against the Pirates over the weekend, and he hasn’t had an extra-base hit in 15 games this month. Tucker surely will pull out of this, but there hasn’t been any sign that his slump is about to end.

Tucker had gone hitless over his last four games coming into Saturday’s contest. He broke that streak with a base hit in the fourth inning and scored the Cubs’ first run on a single by Carson Kelly. Tucker then led off the eighth inning with a single and stole second before scoring the go-ahead run on a base hit by Seiya Suzuki. The 28-year-old outfielder is hitting .265/.377/.454 with 18 homers, 79 runs scored, 62 RBI, and 25 steals across 525 plate appearances.