Unsolved Mysteries: Kyle Tucker and his Injuries

Injuries are a routine part of baseball, and Kyle Tucker has had his share this season. He’s had a hairline fracture from a slide, a sore knee from fouling off a ball, and now is going through a calf injury. But the way the the Cubs have handled these injuries have been anything but routine.

The latest injury had the Cubs wait 5 games before putting him on the IL. And they can only make the 10-day IL stint retroactive for 3 days, to September 6th, meaning he’ll miss a minimum of 11 games in those 13 days, instead of 8 games with a minimal IL stay. The Cubs had an extra roster spot after September 1st, so that has not really been an issue. But after just listening to reports that he could have been used to pinch hit last night and was on-track to play today, it is very confusing.

My only conclusion is that tucker must have not wanted to go on the IL when he was initially injured, but finally realized he needed a few more days to get fully healthy.

This would not be too much a big deal by itself, but it becomes a little concerning when considering the events around his earlier injury to his hand. I wrote about that injury here:
https://cubsin7.blog/2025/08/21/the-strange-case-of-kyle-tucker-and-the-broken-hand/

So what in the world is going on with how the Cubs are dealing with his injuries? For some, it looks like shear incompetence. But while acknowledge the front office has made lots of mistakes, I just don’t think they would act so clumsily without something else going on that we don’t know about.

Much of the criticism of the Cubs around the hand injury was based on a Jesse Rogers article that came out well after he had already healed, but the article did not really make that clear, and some fans on TwitterX were demanding resignations. But a lack of a stronger pushback by Counsell, Hoyer or Hawkins made me wonder if the team was letting Kyle take some of the pressure off with regards to his offensive slump/brief benching at the time. I still have not seen anyone acknowledge who the source was for Jesse Rogers’ story.

My theory is that the Cubs are trying to avoid jeopardizing their relationship with Tucker, in the hopes that they will be able to sign him in the offseason. I might be completely wrong on this, but I can’t think of many other alternatives other than that the crazy fanbase is right, and the leadership of the Cubs don’t know what they are doing.