CHICAGO -- After rounding first base in the eighth inning on Monday afternoon, Kyle Tucker removed his helmet with both hands and slammed it hard into the ground. The sound of the plastic meeting dirt was easily heard, even as Cubs fans sent some boos from Wrigley Field’s stands.
Tucker was a game-changing catalyst for Chicago’s lineup in the first half of this season, but his frustration over his part in the team’s recent offensive woes has become visible for the typically cool-and-collected star. After a 7-0 loss to the Brewers, Cubs manager Craig Counsell acknowledged that it was time for Tucker to take a breather.
“The fans are frustrated and Kyle’s frustrated,” Counsell said. “And it’s unfortunate, because Kyle, when you make outs, it doesn’t look great. But he’s trying. It’s just not clicking. 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 and he’s not coming up with solutions. Sometimes you have to take some steps back to go forward again.”
At a minimum, Counsell said Tucker would not be in the lineup for the Cubs’ next game, which will be Tuesday due to a rainout of Game 2 of a doubleheader on Monday. The manager said the Cubs will “figure out what’s going on from there” with Tucker in determining if the right fielder needs a bit more runway to return to the lineup.
Tucker went 0-for-4 with three groundouts in the loss, dropping his August production to a .148 average with no extra-base hits and a .381 OPS in 15 games. He has not notched an extra-base hit since July 30 or belted a home run since July 19. Simply put, Chicago needs Tucker for its offense to function as designed.
Acquired from the Astros in a blockbuster trade over the winter, Tucker had a .499 slugging percentage and .883 OPS in the season’s first half, when the Cubs boasted one of the game’s highest-scoring units. Since the break, he has slugged .239 with a .572 OPS, while seeing his ground-ball rate climb to uncharacteristic heights.
Tucker’s ground-ball rate was up to 50 percent in August (entering Monday), compared to 33.8 percent in July. At the same time, his average launch angle had plummeted to nine degrees in August, after hovering between 17-20 degrees in each of the first four months, per Statcast. Tucker’s average exit velocity has also dropped below 90 mph in July and August.
“It’s not for a lack of effort on the coaching side or on Kyle’s side,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. “He just hasn’t slugged in quite a while. He hasn’t put a lot of balls in the air and the exit velos aren’t high. I do think a lot of it’s mechanical. I think when 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, right? I think he’s too good a player for it not to click one of these days.”
Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly said earlier this month that the hitting group was working with Tucker on trying to get his bat angle back to its usual position.
“He’s just not a guy that hits the ball on the ground,” Kelly said. “You start to look at some of the swing mechanics and just noticing that the bat angle was a little bit flatter than it had been.”
During the Cubs’ recent series in Toronto, Tucker took batting practice on the field before a game, changing up his typical behind-the-scenes cage routine. The outfielder said it was in an effort to get a feel again for driving balls in the air in a stadium setting.
“I was trying to get that feeling back,” Tucker said this past weekend, “and 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.”
According to Statcast, Tucker has also seen his average bat speed (on competitive swings) drop in both August (71 mph) and July (71.9 mph), compared to June (72.4 mph). Hoyer said the outfielder is healthy, though it is worth noting that Tucker did sustain a right ring finger injury on June 1.
Tucker has downplayed the finger playing any lingering role -- perhaps adding another layer to the frustration that has boiled over out on the field for him.
“Normally, I don't show much emotion out there,” Tucker said. “But it’s been tough the last two months or so. I’ve just got to keep going out there, keep taking my at-bats and everything, and try to do the most with them.”