CHICAGO — Cubs manager Craig Counsell delivered an encouraging update about Kyle Tucker’s left calf tightness Saturday morning.
Just a day earlier, following the Cubs’ 11-5 win over the Nationals on Friday, Counsell gave the assembled media an update on Tucker’s pregame workout. It wasn’t the positive update Chicago wanted, with Counsell saying Tucker “didn’t really make progress with the day off [on Thursday]” and “he’s kind of in the same spot he was on Wednesday.”
Counsell acknowledged that Saturday would be a “big day to see kind of where he’s at.” When asked for an update on the calf issue Saturday, Counsell said he thought “we definitely had improvement today.”
Tucker wasn’t in Saturday’s lineup but wasn’t placed on the 10-day injured list, either, and Counsell noted the Cubs will continue to treat the situation as day to day. On the potential Tucker could return Sunday, Counsell said it’s possible he’s available, though as far as being in the lineup, “probably not.”
With Tuesday being the last game Tucker played, Chicago could’ve placed him on the IL on Saturday and been able to backdate it to Wednesday, meaning he could still return with only a minimum stint on the shelf. If he’s ultimately placed on the IL in the coming days, he’d still have to sit out at least seven days on top of the ones he’d already missed.
All of that, along with the fact that keeping him off the IL means playing down a man, goes into the thought process surrounding Tucker’s situation. The team, however, feels comfortable keeping the status quo as long as his calf continues to show improvement.
“That’s what we’re dealing with is we think we have time to let this heal without putting him on the injured list,” Counsell said. “We think he’ll be ready before what an injured list [stint] would cost him. And we also, with having the extra player in September, feel like we’re not playing short, really. Don’t feel like, from a roster perspective, it hurts us at all.
“I think you put all those factors in, and we’re still going to be conservative with it. Because we felt like we saw improvement today, we think it’s worth just basically taking a day to day track with this.”
Tucker was originally removed from Tuesday’s 4-3 win over the Braves in the top of the seventh inning after concern grew over his calf tightness. He had been dealing with the issue for a few days and informed the team out of caution, and after pulling him from that game, Counsell kept Tucker out of the game Wednesday before Thursday’s team off-day.
The calf tightness came at an unfortunate time, since between Aug. 22 and Tuesday (11 games), Tucker posted a .400/.489/.800 slash line with four home runs, four doubles and 11 RBIs. That came after an extended slump that resulted in a two-day, three-game breather when the Brewers were in town.
Counsell has kept Tucker out of the lineup the last few games for a different reason, of course, and the hope is, when he does return to the field, he can pick up where he left off.
That’ll depend on how his calf feels on a day-to-day basis. For now, it seems there’s more optimism that Tucker can avoid an IL stint.
“I think he showed improvement today, and so that’s what we wanted,” Counsell said. “We wanted some improvement. We wanted [to see that] we’re going in a good direction. If we didn’t think we were going in the right direction, then that would’ve maybe changed our decision.”
