Cubs star Kyle Tucker suffered a hairline fracture in his right hand in June, reports Jesse Rogers from ESPN. Tucker put his right hand in the second base at a stolen base attempt in a match against the Reds at 1. Cubs Schipper Craig Counselell publicly confirmed the fracture of June, but says that Tucker is now healthy, Via Rogers.
First X -rays came back negatively. Rogers, however, writes that continued tests revealed a small break at the top of his hand between his ring finger and little finger. The Cubs did not announce the diagnosis at that time and Tucker has not spent time on the injured list. The four-time All-Star preferred to play the injury.
Afterwards it is fair to wonder if that was careful. Tucker had been one of the best batters in MLB for the first two months of the season. He owned a .284/.395/.524 slash with 12 homers over 269 plate performances up to and including 1 June. Since then he has been hit .236/.352/.368 in almost exactly the same amount of playing time. Tucker has connected the past two and a half months on six longballs.
Although the injury certainly seems to have an impact, it is worth mentioning that Tucker actually continued to play well in the immediate aftermath. He hit .311 with five gayers in June. Only in July things went completely off the rails. He hits .189/.325/.235 with one Homer in his last 38 games.
Tucker’s plate discipline remains strong – he has actually walked more often than he has eliminated during that piece – but his strength has completely evaporated. His speed of hard contact (hit balls with an exit speed of at least 95 mph) was between 44-50% in each of the first two months. It remained stuck at 42.9% in June, but has fallen below 30% in each of the last two months.
That kind of game of a batter of Tucker’s caliber has of course led to speculation about his health. Pat Murphy, manager of the Milwaukee team that plays the Cubs this week, blanket That the outfielder played due to an injury. “I think Tucker hurts. I have no information, but Tucker is not the same,” said Murphy at 670 the score.
Tucker himself has sustained that he is physically in order. President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer, however, admitted that when you look at his number, it certainly had an impact on him. That is sometimes the nature of these small injuries. “They can.” Tucker has kept Tucker out of the Line -up – two days, including a double header on Tuesday. Chicago won all three matches about the MLB-Beste Bewers with Owen Caissie who played right field. Counsell did not promise to the status of Tucker for Thursday’s serial final.
The Cubs remain six games back from Milwaukee in the NL Central. They are comfortable in a Wild-Card position, which gives them the flexibility to mix more off-days for Tucker if necessary. They must find a way to get him productive again when they hope to make a deep play -off run. The injury and slumps are clearly at an unimportant time for Tucker personally, because he is a free desk for a few months. He is the clear number 1 player in the classroom and generally expected $ 400 million+ to be managed while he enters his age-2 season.
#Cubs #Kyle #Tucker #secretly #played #due #injury #malaise