A replica of the Jobu figurine from the movie “Major League” perched on the locker shelf over Kyle Tucker’s left shoulder Tuesday as he fielded questions from a scrum of reporters about his recent struggles at the plate.
“Anything,” Tucker said of what he was looking at to turn around his offensive performance. “Anything that’s staying inside and through the ball, and hit the ball up the middle. I just need to try and continue to figure that out. And hopefully figure it out quick.”
Maybe channeling the fictional character Pedro Cerrano by asking for Jobu’s mystical assistance could help? It was worth a shot.
Tucker was out of the lineup for Game 1 of the Cubs’ doubleheader against the Brewers on Tuesday, a break from what has been a brutal seven-week stretch at the plate.
Tucker, a four-time All-Star and a driving force in the Cubs’ offensive success in the first half, entered Tuesday with a .189 batting average and just four extra-base hits since the beginning of July. He said he’d never before gone this long without answers to an offensive rut.
“We talked Sunday night a little bit,” manager Craig Counsell said of the plan. “We put a lot on the table, and then we’ll see where that goes.”
In recent days, Wrigley Field has been anything but “The Friendly Confines” for Tucker. He was booed in two consecutive home games.
When he went 0-for-4 Monday, fans began voicing their displeasure as early as his second at-bat, and their boos intensified after the third.
When asked about not running out a groundout to first, Tucker said: “It’s kind of exhausting. I don’t know how many times I’ve rolled over to first or second. Regardless, you’ve still got to run down the line, whether you’re out by 50 feet or not.”
It was an example of the slump’s mental toll manifesting in Tucker’s on-field presence. Last week against the Blue Jays, he also chucked his helmet in the Rogers Centre visitors dugout after again grounding out to the right side of the field.
“We try to help, try to support, try to motivate in any way we can,” Counsell said of the mental side. “But, like the mechanics thing, there’s no perfect answers.”
Though Tucker’s swing decisions have remained a strength, mechanical issues have led to a spike in ground ball rate in August, going from 24.8% in April, to 53.7% this month.
“There was a little bit of a timing thing, and then, we noticed that his bat was a little bit flatter than normal,” hitting coach Dustin Kelly said earlier this month. “So that’s something that we’ve talked about for a couple weeks. It doesn’t happen just like that, but it’s definitely something that we’re aware of and he’s aware of.”
In other words, identifying the issue isn’t the same as unlocking the solution.
Tucker, who typically hits in the batting cages before the game, even tried switching up his routine in Toronto last week by taking batting practice on the field.
“It’s a little thing that puts it back in place,” Counsell said. “It’s probably a simple thing that puts it back in place. It’s a swing — doesn’t have to be like a successful swing, even, could be a foul ball that puts it back in place.”
Grinding through hasn’t sped up that process. So, the Counsell deemed it time to try something new: a break from the frustration.
“It’s not for lack of effort on either the coaching side or Kyle’s side,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said this week, noting that they’d also drawn on the expertise of people outside of the organization who have worked with Tucker in the past. “… He’s too good of a player for it not to click. One of these days, it’s going to click, and he’s going to get hot again. Hopefully it’s a torrid hot streak like it was in April.”
Latest on the Sky and WNBA
