Kyle Tucker Back in Chicago, Cubs Hope He Can Return to Lineup by Weekend

Right fielder Kyle Tucker has been out since September 3 with a calf strain that lingered so long he ended up leaving the team to seek help from his personal physical therapist, but now he’s back in Chicago for the final week of the season. The Cubs waited almost a week to place him on the IL, even saying he was available off the bench over the weekend prior to going on the shelf. Now he’s missed 17 games, over which the Cubs have gone 8-9 while averaging less than four runs per game.

The good news is that Tucker has been doing some running, which wasn’t the case when Craig Counsell addressed the media on Sunday. Jed Hoyer shared that news with 670 The Score’s Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show on Tuesday as he discussed his star player’s status.

“The hope is that he progresses, and we can get him in the lineup for a few games here, get him some at-bats and get him going (before the playoffs),” Hoyer said. “That’s the hope. He’s moving in the right direction.”

While it’s not necessary from either a physical or procedural standpoint, it would be in the best interest of everyone involved to have Tucker active for at least the Cardinals series over the weekend. Or maybe every player named Kyle can just sit out for a long period of time and then show up like nothing happened. Not that the Cubs have ever experienced a situation in which a star outfielder, say, blew out his knee in the third game of the season and then came back to help them win the World Series.

“Given where we are, we’re kind of under the gun,” Hoyer explained. “There’s a finite number of days left to get him healthy to get him back and ready for the postseason. Maybe if we’re in June, it would’ve been a different conversation, a different dynamic.”

If the Cubs want to make noise in the playoffs, especially with the way their offense has labored to put up runs, they need a healthy and productive Tucker back in the lineup.