Huh, congrats to Kyle Tucker! The outfielder was named a 2025 National League Silver Slugger award winner and by all means keep the honors coming for the Chicago Cubs. However, I'm not entirely sure Tucker deserved the victory.
Tucker was fantastic through the first three months of the regular season and it's a real shame that Cubs fans did not get to see a full season of Tucker at his best. The talented left-handed hitter had the worst slump of his career for close to two months and then right when he appeared to get back on track during the final couple weeks of August, Tucker went down with a calf injury that sidelined him for most of September.
At the end, Tucker finished the year with 22 home runs, a 136 wRC+ and a slash line of .266/.377/.464, in 136 games. Juan Soto and Corbin Carroll were the other two outfield winners in the National League.
This was Tucker's second Silver Slugger Award with his first win coming in 2023.
The other three finalists for NL outfielders were Pete Crow-Armstrong, Kyle Stowers and James Wood. You can make a strong argument that Stowers should have been the third winning outfielder for the silver slugger. Stowers had a 149 wRC+ compared to Tucker's 136, slashed .288/.368/.544, an OPS 71 points higher than Tucker, and Stowers hit 25 home runs, three more than Tucker in 19 fewer games.
Meanwhile, Wood hit 31 home runs and had 94 RBI, both higher totals than Tucker. PCA also hit 31 home runs and drove in 95 runs, but his overall numbers were significantly lower than Tucker, so no one's really banging the drum for the Cubs' center fielder.
Chalk this one up for name recognition because despite the great reputation, Tucker's 2025 season with the Cubs wasn't exactly close to his best.
Kyle Tucker's complicated 2025 season
I hate this feeling. For years we've been complaining how Jed Hoyer's front office hasn't been aggressive enough in free agency or the trade market. We see other teams make big swings, get star players, take a step forward, and then the Cubs kinda sit back and hope their marginal moves all pay off. But then, fans were finally blessed with an elite player last offseason, when the Cubs made a blockbuster move and traded for Kyle Tucker. A legit top-10 player in the league and he did make the Cubs better in 2025.
Yet, the Cubs were bounced from the playoffs by the Milwaukee Brewers and as we look ahead to the offseason I'm not exactly pounding the table, demanding that the Cubs re-sign Kyle Tucker and that sucks. This year started off with so much promise and it's unfathomable to now think that maybe the Cubs are better off not signing Tucker a to $300 million deal.
Remember when those rumors of extension talks surfaced in April, which turned out to be false, but think about the real conversations that were happening. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had just signed a $500 million contract extension over 14 years to continue his career with the Toronto Blue Jays and with Tucker positioned to be the top free agent in his class fans were thinking how much the Cubs would need to pay up to have him stick around. At least $400 million, probably $450 million to get it done.
Now? I mean, there's no way Tucker is getting anywhere near that $400 million figure in free agency.
At his end of the year press conference, Hoyer spoke about Tucker and while he didn't go into much detail regarding the All-Star's pending free agency, Hoyer said the following.
"When we were at our best, Kyle was at his best, and vice versa. “There’s no question he had a huge impact on this team. Obviously he had dealt with some injuries and struggled a bit in the second half, but again, when you take the totality of the season, he had a huge impact, as we hoped he would. Obviously now we’re sort of into free agency, and we’ll be talking to [Tucker’s agent], and we’ll be having those conversations. Like I said a bunch of times during this season, everyone can use a guy like Kyle Tucker. Everyone gets better by having a player like that."
Tucker ended the year with an .841 OPS, 22 home runs and a 136 wRC+ in 136 games. He was the second-most productive player on offense, trailing only Michael Busch, while Tucker's 4.5 fWAR was third on the Cubs in 2025, behind Pete Crow-Armstrong and Nico Hoerner.
The Cubs had the No. 1 offense in MLB through the first week of June and as Hoyer alluded to, Tucker was a big part of that success. It's insane to think how bad Tucker looked in July and most of August compared to his three months with the Cubs because we're not talking about a guy who was leading the team, Tucker was a top-5 hitter in the league. Heading into July, Tucker had a 157 wRC+, slashing .291/.395/.537.
Then, there was the finger injury that led to Tucker changing his mechanics, which turned into a weeks-long slump and eventual benching in August. But then, Tucker returned and was great for two weeks...and then suffered a calf strain that sidelined him for most of September.
So, what do we even think of Tucker as a player anymore? Is he that top-5 hitter we saw through June? He's not bad, let's not overreact here and run this guy out of town because he went through his struggles, but is Kyle Tucker the star player we thought when he came from Houston?
He had a good season, the Cubs were better than they were before, so thank you, Kyle Tucker.
But, it wasn't a great season. I have no clue what to think of Kyle Tucker's future on the field. There's no clarity and that sucks.
