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The Chicago Cubs have earned three consecutive huge wins over division rival Milwaukee Brewers as the two powerhouse teams continue to duke it out for NL Central supremacy. On Wednesday, the Cubs brought home a 4-3 victory, trimming the Brewers' lead over them to six games. Nevertheless, the Cubs appear to have more pressing issues to deal with at the moment, especially when it comes to star right fielder Kyle Tucker.
On Wednesday, the Cubs gave Tucker another day off — his third straight on the sidelines — with top prospect Owen Caissie drawing the start for Craig Counsell's men. Tucker has been dreadful since the start of July, owing this major dip in performance to the hairline fracture he sustained all the way back in June.
Cubs president Jed Hoyer even had to admit that the injury has clearly taken its toll on Tucker.
“There's no question that when you look at his numbers, it's had an impact on him, for sure. That's the nature sometimes of these small injuries. They can do that,” Hoyer said, via ESPN.
With Caissie doing a good enough job of holding the fort for the Cubs as evidenced by Chicago's three consecutive victories against the best team in the sport, there seems to be no rush for them to bring Tucker back, if Counsell's recent comments are any indication.
“At the start of this for me, it was going to be two days [off]. We'll go from there,” Counsell remarked.
For what it's worth, Tucker said that he's feeling fine and that Cubs fans shouldn't be too worried about him. But a benching felt long overdue considering his poor play over the past month or so.
“I'm fine. I've played, for the most part, every game this year. I'm fine going out there,” Tucker contended.
Cubs rely on top prospect as Kyle Tucker nurses fracture
Since the first of July, Tucker has put up a brutal slash line of .189/.325/.235 — a far cry from the .291/.395/.537 line he put up from the start of the season until the 30th of June.
Clearly, something is wrong with Tucker if he's performing that poorly for the Cubs. And with Chicago having bigger ambitions than merely being a good regular-season team, it's safe to say that they'll be erring on the side of caution with him.
Caissie, a top-50 prospect in MLB according to ESPN's latest rankings, has put up an OPS of .732 through his first six games with the team, and he's already hit his first career home run.
