Tucker getting comfortable
Shortstop turned outfielder is learning new craft one flyball at a time
Cole Tucker received a text from his mother Friday after a loss to the Cincinnati Reds.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, with Tucker in center field for the Pirates, Reds right fielder Nick Castellanos stepped up to the plate and hit a ball high and deep over Tucker’s head.
The young shortstop-bytrade, who is coming up on the one-month anniversary of his switch to the outfield, tracked backward toward the wall. He peeked backward on the warning track, and at the very last moment, he leaped, missing the ball by no more than a foot or two.
Castellanos had hit a three-run homer, essentially putting a nail in the Pirates coffin for the game, an 8-1 loss. Tucker, as could be seen on the telecast, cursed when he realized he didn’t get it.
That’s why his mom texted him.
“My mom texted me and told me that I used some bad language after I realized that I didn’t catch it, so you could kind of see that I thought I had it or thought I could have had it,” Tucker said in a virtual interview. “After talking to some of our analytics people, they said that I timed it right, I routed it right and it probably was just out of reach. I’m trying to find the catch probability on it.”
For Tucker, the play was frustrating. For others with the Pirates, it was encouraging.
Sure, he missed the ball, and in the end, that’s what matters for the final score. In the long run, “the analytics people” don’t seem to be wrong. The ball hung up in the air long enough for Tucker to get close, but it would have taken a mighty effort to pull it back from over the wall.
A month into his outfield tenure, the route and instincts to get there, feel the wall and nearly make the play is a sign that Tucker is becoming more comfortable in center field.
“He got to the wall, which again we’ve talked about is tough,” manager Derek Shelton said. “He made a good jump. You guys can tell me because from my vantage point I couldn’t see how close he was. He said he was close. You guys would have a better vantage point. But the fact that he got to the wall and got up, yeah, he’s going to rob some homers. He’s going to take balls away. He said he was really close to it. I’ll watch the replay of it later. That’s a good sign.”
Still, Tucker was frustrated in the moment, even with the admission that it was the first time.
“Everything’s coming on the fly, and you guys are kind of able to see me learn as we go, which is exciting, but it’s also kind of daunting at the same time, because that was my first time robbing a home run, and you guys and everyone that watched the game and everyone on the field saw it,” Tucker said. “It wasn’t like I did it in early work before. It’s not something that you really practice, and kudos to [general manager Ben Cherington and Shelton] for trusting me to go out there and be athletic and just figure it out, but it is a lot.”
The reality is that Tucker likely has the athleticism to play anywhere the Pirates need him in the field. He was a good fielding shortstop before. He seems to be picking up outfield play as quickly as could be expected. For a 24-year-old, that positional flexibility is just another tool in Tucker’s belt.
What likely will decide his role in future years with the Pirates, though, is the offensive side of things, where Tucker has hit just .209 in his 177 career plate appearances. That isn’t as high as he or anybody else with the Pirates would have hoped for, but there were positive signs on that end, too.
Right-hander Sonny Gray twirled a gem Friday for the Reds, allowing just five hits and one run over 6⅔ innings. Tucker accounted for two of those hits, and he did so by sitting on Gray’s curveball.
Even in his time last season, that might be turning into Tucker’s offensive forte. In 2019, he hit .286 against breaking pitches. On Friday, he knew Gray was relying on his curveball a lot when he threw Tucker several in his first at-bat. The next two times Tucker stepped to the plate, he adjusted, lacing a single up the middle in the fifth and ripping one into right in the seventh.
That effort came after not playing baseball in a week. He sat out the final two games of the series last weekend against the Detroit Tigers, the three days the Pirates had off to start this week and the series opener Thursdy against the Reds.
The operating word in all of this is “almost.” Tucker almost made the catch. He has not quite established his bat, but you can see some positive signs. The unspoken goal now for him will be for consistency in all facets of his game, to become a more regular part of the lineup as the season goes along.
“Your first live BP in spring training, you’re like, ‘I’m either hitting a homer, or this going to go terribly bad.’ That’s kind of how I felt going into tonight,” Tucker said. “But I had some good at-bats and felt pretty good in center, so that was pretty exciting. … It was good to get out there again, definitely.”