MLB 2025: Analyzing the rise to Kyle Tucker De los Cubs stardom
It may not be a known name, but the new gardener of the puppies is still the same toleter who was when he broke records in high school.
Ten years ago In Tampa, Kyle Tucker was about to conquer a special achievement: break the home run records of Plant, held by his brother Preston, then rookie with Houston Astros.
Fans and Cazatalantos aligned in the fences of the Wade Boggs Field to see the new star, as well as the pitching prospect Jake Woodfordin a university known for your baseball talent. But Tucker had not connected a hit in three games and was spending trouble, at least for his standards, according to his coach, Dennis Braun.
“The whole grass was full of cazatalentos, from one jour to another, something I had never seen before,” Braun recalled from his office. “Kyle had not connected a hit in about three games, when he returned the ball to the pitcher and did not reach first base.”
Braun, from the old school, wanted to get Tucker out of his lack of thrust, but he didn’t want to risk damaging his player’s reputation with the cazatalents watching him.
“I thought: ‘Son of P —!’, But I let him play,” Braun said.
Instead, Braun gave him his message in private after the game, telling Tucker to always run each ball and relax and play his game no matter what was at stake.
Message received. In the next game, Tucker left 4-4 with two homers, finishing the season with 31 flycracks, breaking his brother’s brand. Braun then understood what the rest of the baseball world has learned in the later years, while Tucker was ascended as a high school of South Florida to the major league gardener, projected to win between 300 and 400 million dollars in the free agency next season.
“Without a doubt, his sixth tool is that he is both mentally and physically, the hardest boy I have seen,” Braun said. “From afar.”
That is a lot to say, considering who else has walked through the halls of Plant High. The Panthers play their games as locals in a field that is named Mychal Givens, Woodford, Corey Brown and Darren Clarketogether with the first round of the 2024 draft, Jac Caglianoneand the Tucker brothers.
The young Tucker graduated from Plant with the best high school race of all, which culminated in the fifth selection of the 2015 MLB Draft by the stars. Since then, it has improved every year, including an impressive mid -season in 2024 in which it produced 4.7 FWar despite being limited to only 78 games due to a spin lesion.
After being transferred to Chicago in a spectacular exchange during the low season, the Cubs expect Tucker to guide the playoffs for the first time in a full season since 2018 before becoming a free agent. His high school coach believes that Tucker, and his powerful swing, will perform regardless of the pressure, as he has always done.
“They began to nickname it Ted Williams“Braun said.” That stayed for a while. “
Unlike the stars Of the recent generations of free agents – Judge, Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto – Tucker is not a known name. Part of this is due to his discreet personality, since you will not find it by throwing the bat or causing a stir with his comments after the game, but his former companions insist that he has a fun and relaxed side that the public has rarely seen.
“Last year, in spring training, people saw it a bit,” said the Campocorto of the stars, Jeremy Peña, with a smile. “He was a microphone all day. All fans said: ‘I didn’t know that Kyle Tucker spoke.’ But for us it was normal. It was our DJ. It is very outgoing. It’s fun. I think fans will enjoy that facet of theirs.”
Alonso, Tucker teammate in high school during two seasons, compares his personality with his game. Firm and consistent, from his preparation days to his career in the big leagues.
“Sincerely, it’s the same,” Alonso said after a recent preseason game. “Nothing has changed. That is, it maintains the simple game. It simply has a serene attitude, both inside and outside the field.”
Tucker is aware of his reputation, but says he speaks when necessary, although he prefers his game to speak for him.
“I feel that people think I am quite calm and reserved, which I suppose it is true, but, probably, they think I am more reserved than I am really,” Tucker said recently. “I am quite outgoing.”
Tucker has also managed to go unnoticed and get decent numbers of more valuable player during his career thanks to all the talent that surrounds him. During his seven seasons with the stars, he played for large teams, with stars such as José Altuve, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa and Yordan Álvarez monopolizing the reflectors.
That could change with his new team this year, since Tucker begins the season as, without a doubt, the best batter of his own lineup. But there has always been a time when Tucker has been the center of attention, either as the feeling of high school that attracted crowds to a high school in Florida or as one of the most coveted players of the major leagues at the beginning of his platform season: it is every time he displays his swing in baseball.
“It’s a divine talent,” said Yordan Álvarez through the Houston team interpreter. “It’s a natural swing. It hurts not to be able to share time with him. When he is on a winning streak, I think he is one of the best baseball batters.”
In an era Of constant mechanical improvements, even for the best baseball batters, Tucker’s swing looks like when he broke records in high school.
“Why do you get with Ted Williams?” Braun said with a serious medium laugh, attributing merit to the lack of rotation of his rear foot, which allows Tucker to stay in the area longer than most batters and evokes comparisons with the Splendid Splinter.
The Tucker Al Swing High School Coach are shared by others who work with elite batters in sports.
“It is unique only in some of the batty forms that use at the beginning,” he said Troy snitkerhis former batting coach with the stars. “The swing itself is elite. It can be a bit different in the way it places the bat, some wrist angles and the flatness of the bat, but after that, it is an elite swing.”
The new Tucker batting coach with the Cubs, Dustin Kellycoincides with his American League counterpart: “The length it has, the way in which the flater bat places and creates a great rotation. Impressive.”
The effectiveness of the Tucker swing goes beyond the aesthetic qualities that excite coaches and colleagues. When approaching the dish, the quiet and affable Tucker transforms into something else.
“What does Kyle Tucker a great batter goes beyond his mechanics,” Peña said. “When he sits on the plate, he believes he is the best batter in the world. He is a player who wins, wins and goes home, plays video games, appears the next day and wins again, and continues to do it.
“It’s a silent murderer.”
The greatest improvement of Tucker in the last seasons is due both to understand when not to hit and when to try to drive a pitching. In 2021, its base rate per ball was only 9.4 percent, number 59 among qualified batters. It has increased in each season since then, reaching 16.5 percent last season, the third in the largest, only behind Judge and Soto.
“The last two years I worked hard not to pursue and simply better control the Strike area,” Tucker said. “Because you can be a drastically different player if you only change the swing to the strikes and not the balls.” I think I have done better. “
As your ability To miss the releases, he has approached the Judge and Soto class, so has the potential payment of Tucker in the low season. He almost broke the arbitration system during the winter, since he could not compensate for the huge figures he accumulated in just half season last year. Tucker and the CUBS finally agreed a $ 16.5 million contract by 2025. If he takes his career, he will receive another great increase when he becomes a free agent. He and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. seem to be the best free agents in the next winter, and both reach nine -digit contracts.
“The figures are crazy today, but if you have a year like Tucker, how will you not reach $ 400 million or more?” Said an executive of a small market team. “I don’t say it in any way, but some believe it is better than Soto.”
Tucker will turn 29 next winter, while Soto signed with the New York Mets two months after he turned 26, so the chances of his contract approaching Soto’s record of $ 765 million are non -existent. Even so, those who have shared Dugout with Tucker highlight their integral capacity as a player who makes a difference.
“He was a complete player,” he said AJ FANCHwho directed Tucker in Houston from 2017 to 2019. “He could emerge and change the game in different ways. In a very talent team, he still stood out.”
During his time with the stars, Tucker demonstrated his diversity of skills to be included in three games of stars, win a silver bat and a gold glove, connect 30 homers twice, steal 30 bases in 2023 and become one of the baseball elite players.
“I think he and Manny Machado play so similarly because the game is easy for them,” Alonso said. It is very fluid, very relaxed, because for them it is natural. Tucker got things naturally and has one of those swings that always plays.
He is one of the best of baseball, and the only thing that will change in him is his contractual situation, not his game or his attitude towards the game. It is the same as before.
