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.
