Don’t look now, but there is a new star on the North Side of Chicago. The Cubs front office did a fine job making sure to bolster their roster in what is a gauntlet of a National League. It came at a a cost, but the Cubs landed Kyle Tucker. Tucker is undoubtedly a top ten player in the game of baseball and he has delivered early on and showing why he was worth the acquisition.

Tucker Showing Why He Was Worthy of Acquisition

The Cubs do have a very well put together roster in my opinion. They have plenty of weapons at the plate, just the main issue was that some of them took a step backwards during the 2024 season. This was a Cubs team that scored the 12th most runs, but were middle of the pack in just about every single offensive statistical category. With an NL Central that is very much up for grabs, they made the bold acquisition of landing Tucker.

A player of his stature and caliber does not come around often. And the offense is reaping the benefits for it. Tucker did not have the strongest Spring Training, but those stats do not matter! The real games are played now and that’s what matters. Tucker did not do a ton in the Tokyo series, but since returning to the states, he’s been a machine.

Tucker has been a machine as of late. Tucker has gone on to hit a home run in four straight games, joining Michael Busch as the latest players to do that for the franchise. In addition, he very well can be the player to have the most home runs in their first season as a Cub. The player that holds that title is Wiilson Contreras with 13 back in 2016. Yeah…he will surpass that and with ease.

Tucker was part of a barrage of runs displayed in Sacramento, which is looking like it’ll be a very hitter friendly ballpark. Tucker absolutely went off, hitting .462 and slugging 1.154 with an OPS of 1.742. That’s huge. Tucker has also helped spearhead a Cubs offense that’s come ready to play.

The Cubs rank 10th in batting average, seventh in slugging and eighth in OPS. This is a team that has scored the most runs in baseball and is only behind the Dodgers and Yankees for the most home runs in the league.

They are once again getting contributions from Seiya Suzuki and even Dansby Swanson has turned a corner. But Tucker is leading the way and it’s not particularly close. His 229 wRC+ is nearly 100 more than the next closest Cubs batter. Tucker is nearly a 1 win player, and it’s only nine games in. 

The Astros did not trade Tucker because they wanted to, but because they knew the price tag they’d have to meet in order to pay him. To start the year, Tucker is playing himself into a very handsome contract and is the big fish this free agency for position players.

He is the exact type of player that the Cubs need and they should do anything to lock him up.