The Chicago Cubs acquired Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros in December as the missing superstar in the lineup, and his strong start helped fuel expectations that a return to the World Series wasn’t just a pipe dream.
The Cubs acquired Michael Soroka from the Washington Nationals last week at the trade deadline to help fill a void in the rotation and eventually contribute out of the bullpen.
As they begin a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds on Monday night at Wrigley Field, Tucker and Soroka will share the spotlight.
Tucker’s recent struggles have raised questions about whether he deserves to be one of the game’s highest-paid players when he enters free agency after the season and whether Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts would give him the megadeal he’ll likely be seeking.
Tucker was a starting National League All-Star outfielder and enters Monday with a 4.3 WAR, eighth among all position players. His .871 OPS is highest on the Cubs and 12th in the majors. It’s no stretch to suggest the Cubs wouldn’t be competing for a division title without him in the lineup.
“Obviously you realize you must have your limits,” President Jed Hoyer said in early July. “We’ll keep all those things internal, but certainly I think Kyle is the kind of player you want to keep. I’ve said that all along.”
Of course. But at what price?
Tucker has since endured his first prolonged slump in Chicago. He’s hitting .226 with one home run and nine RBIs in 27 games since June 29 with a .365 on-base percentage and a .666 OPS. On Sunday he shocked almost everyone at Wrigley by putting down a sacrifice bunt in the first inning of a 5-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles, his first sacrifice bunt as a Cub.
Manager Craig Counsell said “Tuck had planned that all day,” suggesting he approved of the plan. Suffice to say most modern sluggers don’t give themselves up to advance a baserunner in the first inning.
Some have pointed to Tucker’s finger injury as a reason for the slump. He jammed his right ring finger on a slide against the Reds on June 1 but missed only a couple of starts. Counsell said Sunday the finger isn’t a problem.
When I asked whether Tucker perhaps is feeling some pressure in a walk year, as many free agents do, Counsell hedged.
“Look, I don’t think we can do anything about that,” he said. “Those are his realities. Every player kind of has their own realities and pressures they have on them.
“Kyle is going through a baseball season. He spoiled us in the month of April. His numbers are right on his career numbers right now, and coming off a bad streak, that’s where you want it to be, actually.”
Photos: Chicago Cubs walk off the Baltimore Orioles at Wrigley Field
Tucker isn’t the only Cubs hitter struggling of late, but he’s the most important one in the lineup and needs a strong finish for the Cubs to go far. Ricketts told Tribune beat writer Meghan Montemurro that re-signing Tucker has been “a theme of the summer for the fans here,” before changing the subject to the four trade-deadline acquisitions.
If Ricketts believes Cubs fans are satisfied with the deadline acquisitions, he’s deluded. It was the No. 1 topic for fans all weekend at Wrigley. Most blamed Ricketts for failing to put his money where Hoyer’s mouth is, after Hoyer spent weeks talking about getting starting pitching.
The $22.5 million the Cubs saved by trading Cody Bellinger to the New York Yankees for a reliever who was later released did not get used for deadline moves, as Ricketts suggested it would be at the Cubs Convention. Neither was the money saved by not signing free agent Alex Bregman in spring training.
Unfortunately for Ricketts, Cubs fans don’t forget those kinds of things.
Which brings us to Soroka, who made his Cubs debut Monday against the Reds. He was the lone starter Hoyer acquired at the deadline, putting undue pressure on him to perform. Hoyer repeatedly told the media, podcasters and everyone who would listen that he was getting a starter, so fans were looking for a significant upgrade.
But on Monday, Soroka went just two innings, giving up one run on one hit and walking one while striking out three in 31 pitches. The team later said he exited with right shoulder discomfort.
Under Counsell, Soroka is expected to be used for five or six innings per outing and basically will serve as a placeholder until Jameson Taillon’s return. Taillon will have at least one or two more rehab outings at Triple-A Iowa, Counsell said.
Soroka is a combined 3-18 with a 4.81 ERA the last two seasons with the White Sox and Nationals, two horrible teams. No, he’s not Joe Ryan or MacKenzie Gore or any other frontline starter Cubs fans were clamoring for at the deadline.
But he doesn’t have to be any of those pitchers to succeed. He just has to be a reasonable facsimile of the Soroka who made a splash as a rookie with the Atlanta Braves in 2019 before injuries sidelined him for two-plus years and turned him into a journeyman.
Last year Soroka went 0-10 on the 121-loss White Sox team, the worst team in modern history, and was demoted to the minors for a brief stretch as he made the transition to the bullpen.
“It’s obviously not the way you write it up, it’s not the way you think things will happen,” Soroka said of his stint on the South Side. “But having gone through those difficulties last year, personally and as a team, it’s (provided) perspective moving forward. There are lots of ways to have success in this game, and it’s about finding which way works for you.”
Now he’s expected to help the team on the other side of town get to the postseason. Soroka has pitched in big games for the Braves. He was an All-Star in 2019, and in his lone postseason start he allowed one run on two hits in seven innings against the St. Louis Cardinals.
“He’s gone through this before,” Counsell said, “so no worries about that.”
Good to know, since Cubs fans aren’t the worrying types. (Face palm emoji.)
A crowd of 39,430 turned out Sunday for Greg Maddux 1988 Rain Delay Bobblehead day, which commemorated Maddux’s tarp slide during the first scheduled night game at Wrigley on Aug. 8, 1988.
It was a coveted bobblehead, despite not resembling Maddux, because of the famous episode and the fact he’s a beloved ex-Cub and Hall of Famer. But the Cubs dropped the ball by not explaining the whole story on the Marquee Sports Network telecast.
Thirteen fans jumped the walls at Wrigley that night during the rain delay and went sliding on the rain-covered tarp. A similar scene in the hit baseball movie “Bull Durham” had made it a popular pastime in 1988, when security was more lax.
Several fans were arrested for trespassing, and others were removed from the ballpark. But Maddux and three teammates — Jody Davis, Les Lancaster and Al Nipper — got off scot-free for their tarp-sliding antics, until general manager Jim Frey fined them each $500.
“You’ve got the league president here, you’ve got the commissioner here, you’ve got a full house where things are happening,” manager Don Zimmer said a couple days later. “If it would’ve happened five days from now, it probably wouldn’t have been a big thing.
“I think the whole thing is, if they were handcuffing people for doing it, and then four of my players go out there, what would prevent 100 (fans) from going out there? It could cause a hell of a problem, no doubt about it.”
When the Cubs released Nipper the next spring, he claimed the tarp incident led to the decision and also was the reason behind trading Davis to the Braves a month after the incident and demoting Lancaster to the minors.
“Not at all,” Frey responded. “Maddux was there. We’re not getting rid of Maddux.”
Of course, Maddux left as a free agent after the 1992 season and spent his prime with the Braves before returning in 2004. But 37 years after the tarp incident, the Cubs finally found a way to monetize it.
Maybe they should rescind those fines and refund Maddux and his three former teammates with the revenues from Sunday’s sellout.
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