CHICAGO — Wrigley Field’s “Kyle Tucker Era” will be extended for at least one more October night. How this time will be remembered depends on how the Cubs perform in another elimination game, and whether their most accomplished hitter delivers the clutch postseason moments that leave fans wanting more.
A crowd of 40,737 happily filed out after the Cubs hung on for Wednesday night’s 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, keeping them alive in this best-of-five National League Division Series. When Tucker gets on base three times and scores a run to build an early lead, the offense operates at a higher level and the bullpen gets used for maximum effect.
The Cubs used that winning formula early and often this season, riding the momentum from a fast start into their first playoff appearance since 2020. This loud, electric scene likely doesn’t happen without Tucker’s arrival. Now, down 2-1, no one knows whether Thursday will be his final game in a Cubs uniform.
Inside the Wrigley Field office building, club officials never want to rule anything out, always preferring to wait until the last minute before making a big decision. Two months before Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings, it would make zero sense for an All-Star outfielder and his high-powered agency to eliminate any big-market franchises from consideration.
Still, it’s not hard to see where this is trending. You don’t hear the clamoring anymore for the Cubs to re-sign Tucker, whose injury issues factored into a subpar second half, and forced him into playing exclusively at designated hitter, so far, in this postseason.
If Tucker, who will be 29 next season, winds up weighing short-term deals with more flexibility, his first choice for a platform year probably wouldn’t be Wrigley Field, an iconic venue that ESPN just described as “a hitter’s worst nightmare.”
Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement, which is set to expire after the 2026 season, could further complicate the situation.
Ever since the Cubs executed a blockbuster trade with the Houston Astros last offseason, the likeliest outcome remained Tucker exploring his options as a free agent. In light of two landmark deals, Tucker would be incentivized to see what else is out there.
Shortly before the Cubs finalized the Tucker deal, Juan Soto agreed to a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets. Even if Tucker would not encounter the perfect storm that led to Soto’s record-setting deal, he could potentially approximate Soto’s production as a left-handed hitter while adding Gold Glove defense in right field, plus the ability to steal 30 bases.
Tucker’s ability to hit for power and average, plus his defense and speed helps make him a unique player in today’s game. (Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images)
Shortly after Opening Day, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed a 14-year, $500 million contract extension with the Toronto Blue Jays. Just like that, Guerrero removed himself from the upcoming class of free agents, seemingly leaving Tucker as the obvious No. 1 hitter available.
In assessing the potential ripple effects back in April, an agent who does not represent Guerrero or Tucker told The Athletic: “I don’t think that Tucker’s going to get the money that Vlad got, but I think he’s a better hitter than Vlad. I think Kyle Tucker’s the best hitter in the game right now.”
At this moment, though, Tucker is more of a complementary piece. Right now, Cubs manager Craig Counsell said, “you can just tell by the way they manage the game” that first baseman Michael Busch is “the guy in the lineup that everybody is thinking about.”
While teammates often credited Tucker for helping build lineup synergy and clubhouse chemistry, it can be hard for others to read a reserved personality with a dry sense of humor who had spent his entire professional career in Houston’s organization before getting traded to Chicago.
It can also sometimes be hard to tell what Cubs executives Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins really want in a free agent, because so much of their evaluation process is based on what the rest of the baseball industry is willing to pay for those skills, and whether their model projections can identify a market inefficiency.
Here is another bottom line: In what looked like a playoffs-or-bust year for the front office, and at a time when the Wrigleyville business model appeared to be slumping, Tucker transformed what had been an 83-win team into an October force.
“He might have been the MVP of the National League after the first couple months of the season,” Hoyer said in late September. “When you get to this last weekend of the regular season, there’s times I think back on things that I was dealing with in April, and it feels like it happened to a different person – it was so long ago.
“I was thinking about spending the weekend talking about Justin Steele and the potential for surgery, and that literally feels like it was two years ago and it was in this regular season. The reason I say that is, you get to this point because of everything that happens.
“I don’t think we can discount how good our offense was, how big a part of it (Tucker) was this season. The first two months of the season were when we got well away from .500, and when we sort of established ourselves as a playoff team. His impact on this season is pretty incredible, even though a lot of his production, at this point, was several months ago.”
Ultimately, years and dollars determine decisions for free agents. But for certain hitters, the offensive climate at Wrigley Field may become a real factor to consider.
Scott Boras, baseball’s longtime super agent, alluded to a perception issue during a conversation last September, as high-profile clients such as Juan Soto, Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso approached free agency. Another Boras client, Cody Bellinger, was nearing the end of his second season in Chicago, which did not deliver as much thump as his MVP-level 2023 campaign.
“Wrigley Field is unexplainable,” Boras said then. “The Farmer’s Almanac applies to Wrigley Field. It didn’t rain, the crop didn’t grow. Wrigley Field had the most unusual season. It has been an offensive (drought).”
Tucker, who’s represented by Excel Sports Management, has not used his injuries as an excuse or blamed Wrigley Field, which over the past three seasons ranks as one of the worst offensive environments in the majors, better than only Seattle’s T-Mobile Park.
“Regardless,” Tucker said, “the other team is playing with the same factors, too, so you just got to go out there and try to square up the ball and hit it on the barrel. You try to drive some runs in or get on base. Some days, it’s a little bit easier than others. But both sides are still playing with it, so you’ve just got to go up there and do your best with it.”
It was a brisk 61 degrees for Wednesday’s 4:08 p.m. first pitch. Tucker tried to bunt in his first at-bat, and then drew a walk off Brewers starter Quinn Priester, who could not finish the first inning as the Cubs quickly put up four runs, regaining some momentum in a playoff series that isn’t over yet.
“The fans come out and support us all year long,” Tucker said. “This is what they want. This is what we want. We’re trying to do our best for them and the city.”
