There is no mistaking the difference that Kyle Tucker has made on the Cubs offense. The group that held middle-of-the-pack rankings at the plate in 2024 is sitting at the top of the league this season. They are first in runs scored and second in team batting average and wins above replacement, according to Fangraphs.

That performance has helped the Cubs to a 18-12 record going into the final game of April, a win-loss record made even more impressive when it is taken into consideration that they had the toughest strength of schedule in baseball through the first month of the season.

Tucker, for his part, has played all 30 games of the season so far and has posted a 1.5 WAR, good for seventh-highest in baseball. He has a .288/.397/.568 slash line, seven home runs, and eight doubles, all while playing sterling defense in the notoriously challenging right field at Wrigley Field. Even before the season started, it was evident that the Cubs should pursue a contract extension with Tucker, who is otherwise on the team for just one year before he hits unrestricted free agency in the offseason.

But the question has always been whether or not Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts was going to be willing to pay what it will likely cost to keep Tucker in Chicago. Tucker will almost certainly command top dollar this winter, and the Cubs have mostly sat out making big dollar offers to top tier free agents. And that’s despite some of them going into an offseason with the Cubs as their first choice, like Bryce Harper in 2018, who shared recently that he went into that winter expecting to sign in Chicago.

“Going into that offseason, they were the No. 1 team on my list,” Harper told Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. “Obviously, I’m extremely happy with where I am in Philadelphia. I would never change it for the world. I love the fan base, city, everything. It’s a blast. But pre-2019, going into free agency, the Cubs were at the top of my list.”

On top of that, team president Jed Hoyer has typically stayed away from engaging in heavy contract negotiations during the season, which would seem to leave no other choice but to wait until after the World Series to start making serious offers to Tucker’s camp. This, of course, would essentially mean competing with the rest of the league in open free agency.

“As far as long-term stuff, obviously, we would love to keep Kyle long-term. I mean, who wouldn’t want a player like that?” Hoyer said on an appearance on Chicago sports radio station WSCR last week. “I would keep any conversations we are having internal. I think it’s hard to negotiate in season. I’m not sure what’s going to happen with that.”

Now, it’s important to keep in mind that what a player or team executive says publicly is not usually the full story. Especially as it pertains to contract negotiations, it’s in neither party’s best interest to lay everything out on the table.

That said, what Hoyer said on the radio is in keeping with how the Cubs have generally approached these kinds of things. And if that’s the case with Tucker, that is not encouraging news for Cubs fans hoping to see an extension.

But, there is at least some reason to believe that it could happen. On the most recent episode of his podcast, insider David Kaplan said that he is getting word that the Cubs might at least be willing to approach Tucker with a top-dollar offer.

“I’m hearing that the Cubs have wrapped their brain around—doesn’t mean he’ll accept it—wrapped their brain around ‘whatever it costs, we’re paying it’ and they want to keep Tucker,” Kaplan said.

The right approach for the Cubs is to come to Tucker with the highest offer. For as friendly as the confines of Wrigley Field might be, especially during a Chicago summer, that alone probably won’t be enough to persuade Tucker to stick around and pass on the chance to get the best possible contract offer during the offseason.

It will help, too, if the Cubs keep winning. They have all of the ingredients for a division winner, and the first National League Central title for the Cubs since 2017 would generate even more excitement among a fanbase that typically needs little help getting fired up about their team.

At this stage in his career, Kyle Tucker is poised to get the best of both worlds: a hefty contract and the chance to compete for a World Series title. Both things still need time to develop, but movement is trending in the right direction. The Cubs are off to a strong start despite a very tough schedule, and if team ownership is embracing the idea of paying Tucker whatever it takes to keep him around, then the chances that he stays in Chicago beyond 2025 are solid.