The Chicago Cubs have had a turbulent last few weeks in the injury department, especially in their outfield as they prepare to gear up for the playoffs and put themselves in the best position possible by the time October arrives.
Both of their star outfielders in Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong have been dealing with ailments recently, and while neither was forced to hit the injured list, the Cubs have now been without both stars for a fair amount of time.
Crow-Armstrong — who fouled a ball off his knee over the weekend — returned to the lineup in a DH role on Monday night and appears to be close to normal, however Tucker has been a different story.
After being missing from the lineup on Monday night, Tucker now has not played in a week as he deals with an ongoing calf problem. Following the series opening loss to the Atlanta Braves though, manager Craig Counsell did provide a tremendous update on the right fielder and revealed he was available off the bench should he have been needed.
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Going into Monday, a stint on the injured list did not sound to be in the cards anymore, and Counsell revealed via Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic (subscription required) that Tucker had progressed further on Monday and is on the cusp.
“At this point, no,” Counsell said when asked if Tucker could still be placed on the IL. “I think we’re making good progress. As long as we’re having days where we’re moving forward and getting closer — that’s what we’ve felt the last two days, especially — we’re in a good place.”
Instead of bringing him back to the lineup though, they instead wound up placing him on the IL retroactive to Saturday and activated top prospect Moisés Ballesteros in the corresponding move.
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Tucker has now missed five games headed into Tuesday night and Chicago has lost four of them as the offense has been a major struggle. In three of those games, the Cubs have scored just one run total, the first game against Atlanta last night being included in that.
On the season as a whole, Tucker is slashing .270/.381/.472 with 22 home runs and 73 RBI, collecting a bWAR of 4.8 through 133 games played. He has been prone to streakiness, however clearly the 28-year-old is as important as any other player in baseball to his team and when he’s at his best, there are not many better.
If Chicago wants any hope of making the kind of run this October that they are hoping for, Tucker is going to be at the center of things. In order to do that, he will have to get healthy and give this team their superstar back.
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