The Kyle Tucker saga took a sharp turn late Monday afternoon when Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell announced he would give his slumping slugger some time off to regroup.

How long is unknown, but with the season winding down and every game increasing in importance, any game off for Tucker is a sad statement on how far his stock has dropped in the last month.

And so it goes for the Cubs in a dismal stretch where they’ve basically conceded the National League Central to the Milwaukee Brewers, whom they trail by nine games after Game 2 of the doubleheader was postponed until Tuesday.

Benching a starting National League All-Star outfielder in a pennant race is a step no one could’ve predicted only a month ago when Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong headed to Atlanta for the Midsummer Classic.

“We’re going to have to take a little step back here, for sure, and just give him some days off to reset him hopefully, because he’s frustrated and we’re not coming up with solutions for him,” Counsell said. “He’s not coming up with solutions. So sometimes you have to take some steps back to go forward again.”

The Cubs remain in good position in the NL wild-card race, and the addition of Owen Caissie gives Counsell another option while Tucker clears his head.

Cubs fans have been pining for Caissie since he was called up last week in Toronto, but Counsell sat him in the Pittsburgh series before giving him a start in Game 1 on Monday. Caissie went 1-for-3 with his first major-league hit.

Counsell said all weekend that Caissie was not a better option than his starting corner outfielders, even as Tucker and Ian Happ were slumping.

Then why call him up in the first place?

“If we don’t think there is any playing time at some point and we want to switch that out, that may be something we do,” Counsell said before Game 1. “That’s kind of what we landed on as the best choice at this point in the season for our roster.”

Now it’s presumably Caissie’s chance to show why he can be a viable replacement for Tucker next year if Tucker leaves via free agency, as expected.

Sitting your star in a race for a postseason spot when he’s about to become a free agent is usually a bad sign for an organization, especially one that hopes to make a long-term commitment with that player.

But Tucker’s slump — 24 straight games without a home run, and a .148 average and .381 OPS in August — has forced Counsell to try something different.

Only a few hours earlier on Monday, President Jed Hoyer was asked if Tucker needed a break, even a stint on the 10-day IL. Hoyer said Tucker is healthy and wouldn’t be sent to the IL.

“You always try to think, ‘Well, what things can help to do that,’” Hoyer said. “We’ve had a lot of conversations about that.”

Apparently, another conversation after Monday’s game led to the decision to sit Tucker.

“It’s not for a lack of effort either on the coaching side or Kyle’s,” Hoyer said. “He hasn’t slugged in quite a while. He hasn’t put a lot of balls in the air. His exit (velocity) is not high. I do think a lot of it is mechanical. If you look at his swing early in the year versus now, it’s less connected and therefore less powerful. It’s kind of the same thing as the team.

“He’s too good of a player for it not to click. One of these days it’s going to click and he’s going to get hot again, and hopefully it’s a torrid hot streak like it was in April. Everyone is seeing the same thing, including him. A lot of balls on the ground, not a lot of slug, and he’ll keep working to get there.”

After Hoyer’s interview, Tucker went 0-for-4 in the Game 1 loss and was booed in his final two at-bats. He slammed his helmet to the ground after flying out in the eighth inning, when the boos increased in volume.

Tucker was not available after Counsell’s announcement. He said Saturday that his recent display of emotions is not indicative of the way he usually plays.

“It just kind of happens,” he said. “Normally I don’t show much emotion out there, just try to do my job. It’s been tough the last two months or so… Just kind of move on, take the next at-bat and regroup.”

Counsell was not happy with the booing, which is usually counterproductive for a fan base if it wants to see its superstar return next season.

“Kyle is frustrated as well,” Counsell said. “The fans are frustrated and Kyle is frustrated and it’s unfortunate. When you make outs, it doesn’t look great, but he’s trying. It’s not clicking.”

Before the benching was announced, Hoyer said Tucker’s finger injury from early June might have led to the mechanical issues that had led to the power outage, and he felt confident that Tucker would get back on track.

“My guess is he’s going to have a hot streak and end up where he usually is,” Hoyer said.

Tucker admitted this was one of the worst stretches of his major-league career. He hasn’t homered since July 19 and has no extra-base hits since July 30. His second-half slugging percentage is .239, after a .490 slug in the first half. Overall, his .447 slugging percentage is the lowest since his rookie season in 2018.

“I don’t know how long it has been since I’ve hit a homer,” Tucker said. “I probably haven’t (had a homerless streak that long) since when I first got called up. Really I don’t necessarily care if we’re winning games.”

Tucker normally eschews taking batting practice on the field before games, but decided to do it last week in Toronto as a way to get out of his slump. He tries to stick to his routines, but said it was done to try and increase his launch angle.

“I haven’t really driven the ball in the air,” he said. “And I was just trying to get that feeling back, trying to do it out on the field where you have the visual of what it’s going to be like in the game and try to replicate that once the game starts. I had a few swings in Toronto that didn’t end up as a hit or anything. But that’s how baseball is sometimes. You just try to battle through it.”

Now he’ll have to battle through it while he’s watching his teammates play the biggest series of the season against the red-hot Brewers, who have won 15 of their last 16. Tucker still figures to hit it big as a free agent in November, but unless things change in the final five weeks, it could be the end of the line for him in Chicago.