Kyle Tucker, who are based, makes the best of his year with the Cubs

New York – With a view to the city's skyline and Lake Michigan, it looked like a picture that the Chicago Cubs would include in a recruitment presentation. Kyle Tucker was in the sunshine and posed on a boat with a group of teammates and Wrigley Field Clubhouse workers. The all-star outfield posted the photo on its Instagram account, the social media version of Chum into the water.

This type of reaction was not Tucker's intention, but Cubs fans are looking for signs of his future. Regardless of whether you are carefully optimistic or deeply skeptical, you would like to know whether this large market franchise is willing to pay the projected player No. 1 in the next freedom of freedom. Tucker does not provide any evidence of his preferences and lets his game speak.

“I will see some comments from time to time,” said Tucker. “I am sure that some people over -analyze and read much more between the lines than others, and we only had a” teamboat day “. It's fun.

Tucker praised Justin Turner for the organization of the excursion on June 30th, which was open to all players, their families and the clubhouse staff. Winning always helps the team chemistry, but the Cubs are a close -meshed group, a reflection of a reserved superstar who arrived here and does not know where it will be next year.

The countdown began last December when Jed Hoyers Front Office Tucker acquired in a Win-now trade with the Houston Astros. The deal concluded only a few days after Juan Soto approved his record contract with the New York Mets with a 15-year contract of $ 765 million. The Megadal, approved by MET's owner Steve Cohen, illustrated the increasing costs for business.

Shortly after the opening day, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed a 14-year contract extension of $ 500 million with the Toronto Blue Jays, refrained from the free agency, which passed on in the offseason-offsee and removed a way for Tucker, which could soon be at the center of a bidder war.

“I'm not necessarily worried,” said Tucker. “If something happens, something happens. The only thing I can really control is to get out of it and do my best, put up numbers and try to help us win games.

“In my eyes, as long as I just try to do it, and help my part to help us, I have the feeling that everything else just happens. I can't really control something that is not in my control or try to manipulate or force something.”

Tucker is a left -hander who lets the game come to him and understands how Pitcher try to set it up and get him out. The little things are for Tucker, a gold glove defender and a plus basin, who competed in 15 playoff rounds with the Astros. Instead of presenting himself as a one-man company, Tucker wants to be one of the boys.

“It was just a fun little day,” said Tucker. “We said:” We should make a boat day every day. “

Tucker stood 6-foot 4 and wears a lanky, 220 pound frame and approaches with a feeling of the quiet home plate and looks more like someone who has just rolled out of bed than one of the most dangerous slugers in sport.

It's not quite sluggish, but Tucker's mannerisms and consistency give a certain mood. In many ways, it is an ideal personality for a great bat. The performance at this level requires the ability to concentrate on every pitch and then forget what has just happened.

Everything is so smooth.

“Kyle has a way to make the game look just,” said Cubs Manager Craig Consell. “Nobody else will say that it is easy, and Kyle will not say that it is easy. But if you see Kyle in the box, he only has the opportunity to do what many people are for the most difficult in sport sometimes look just.

“Sometimes it is frustrating to pay attention to rackets. But I also think that his approach in the presentation is a really good lesson for all of our rackets.”

Tucker gives an example by following his routine without saying what to do. At a time when Major League trainer teams are larger than ever and so many aspects of the game can be measured, Tucker is happy to feel like.

He learned by watching all these experienced rackets in Houston and saw everything they needed to win the World Series in 2022. He has already accumulated 418 record appearances this season and played in 94 out of 95 games. He knows what to do to clarify his mind and feel loose.

That could mean 10 fluctuations of a T -shirt and 15 flips, instead of early rounds of impact practice, the usual foreplay program and additional sessions in the impact cage. As the Cubs have learned in recent years, it is great to have your process, but it has to go hand in hand with results.

“I don't necessarily want to get out of a good swing,” said Tucker. “With something you can achieve a point where you start to rethink things. Or you can feel something different and start over -analyzing it. Then you go up there with this type of thinking process and it is a little anywhere and you cannot really lock in.

“For the most part it is like the saying:” Quality about quantity “.”

Even near team officials, Tucker can hold back a little, if still very pleasant. He has the same relaxed behavior and a dry sense of humor during the interviews with reporters. However, if you could look into the clubhouse's dining room after a game, you will see Tucker at a table surrounded by teammates.

“Hold,” said Cubs Pitcher Matthew Boyd.

This dynamic was always hoped, but not necessarily guaranteed if the Cubs have a potential rookie of the year (Cam Smith), an all-star third Baseman (Isaac-Paredes) and a Pitcher Major-League (Hayden Wesneski, which now recovered from Tommy John Operation). When the CUBs give up 14 potential club control over these players, they received one season to maximize Tucker's talents and make their place.

The Cubs will take first place on the last day before the All-Star break. After the game on Sunday afternoon in the Yankee Stadium, Tucker, Boyd and Pete Crow-Armstrong will travel to Atlanta to get the celebrations for the All-Star Week. The Cubs will not dominate the event as the future World Series Champs did in 2016 – and the club has seen a few sleeping places lately – but the plan outside the season comes together with a mix of experienced players and young talents.

Tucker's hot start helped more space to develop aggressively on the bottom of the line-up. When Seiya Suzuki watched the rhythm of Tucker's bats, he recognized how one was more aggressive.

Boyd, who had thrown eight-goalless inning against the New York Yankees in the 5-2 victory on Saturday, carried the rotation in the absence of several start jugs and will not appear in the all-star game so that he can preserve the strength for the second half. All of these elements of the club are connected. In their worst full month, the Cubs went 13-13 in June.

“The special thing about Tuck is that he does everyone better,” said Boyd. “By the way, by the way, he is wearing how he does his business, there is something to have with a man who has no panic, at least not to worry. That brings a lot of peace and determination to a team in day-in-based. It is really something special.”

There were no excuses of Tucker, no longer adjustment time after his entire career had previously spent in an organization. The brutal hit conditions at Wrigley Field did not get in the head at the beginning of this season. Even if he is not the star of the game-Hat Crow-Armstrong Delivered so many highlight reel moments-Tucker has still tacitly done things to help the Cubs win a series and maintain the dynamics.

The numbers on the entire line-a average of 0.282, 17 Home Runs, 22 stolen bases, 56 RBIs, 68 runs, a percentage of 0.384 and an operating room of 0.887-way towards a player that seems to be immune to the pressure of the contract year.

Kyle Tucker, a distributed field player and Baserunner, can influence a game with more than just his bat. (AP Photo / Erin Hooley)

“I don't really know about him in general,” said Cubs Shortstop Dansby Swanson. “He only goes up there and takes care of the business every day. There is also something to say about the personality and trust – Assimilates are not the right word – but be able to embed yourself in a team and to be part of the team and to be part of something greater than you want to be.

“It only shows you what he is generally about. New team – and there is obviously the possibility that he is only a year with a team – but it doesn't change how he does his business.”

For both sides, it is probably useful to see what the market will wear for an elite player who will be 29 years old next year.

“Not really,” Tucker said when he was asked whether his thinking about free agency developed since he was traded at the Cubs seven months ago. But putting together the largest contract in the franchise story would always require a leap.

The Baseball Operations Department in Chicago has checked Tucker's immense value and confirmed its relaxed species in the clubhouse. The Ricketts Family Ownership Group and the business side of the organization see the recruited crowds on the Wrigley Field. At the moment, the end result is that Tucker is fun playing for a team that he believes that he can win the World Series this year.

“I will not allow a contract or money that somehow prescribes what I do on the field,” said Tucker. “I will play and steal bases, hit and field and everything else, regardless of it. I only do what I can do out there. And the rest will take care of yourself.”

(Top photo: Tim Warner / Getty Images)