Thursday, June 26

Welcome back to the Cubs Beat newsletter. Jordan Bastian has covered baseball for MLB.com since 2005, including the Cubs since the 2019 season. 

ST. LOUIS -- When Kyle Tucker takes the field at Daikin Park on Friday night, the Cubs outfielder will hardly need an introduction. Astros fans witnessed him blossom into a superstar in Houston, and the image of him catching the final out of the 2022 World Series will forever be a part of the team’s history.

Expect the fans on hand in Houston to give Tucker a warm response when he makes his return.

“It’d be nice,” Tucker said. “We had a lot of success over there for however long. I had a lot of great years and great memories over there, so I’m looking forward to being back in Houston, and just kind of playing the series.”

Tucker remembers seeing George Springer and Gerrit Cole make return trips to Houston as visiting players and witnessing the reaction from the home fans. The Cubs outfielder thinks he knows what to expect, but it will nonetheless have the makings of an emotional moment after spending seven seasons with the Astros.

In his time in Houston, Tucker grew into a three-time All-Star and Gold Glove winner, finishing fifth in American League MVP voting in the ‘23 campaign. He played in two Wild Card Series, five AL Division Series, five AL Championship Series and three Fall Classics with the Astros.

“It’ll be fun. It’ll be a good experience,” Tucker said. “Obviously, the first time back, so it’ll be cool to see the guys and catch up with them. But, we’re also there to play against them, so I’m a little more focused on that.”

On Dec. 13, the Cubs made the aggressive move to acquire Tucker from the Astros in exchange for Isaac Paredes, Cam Smith and Hayden Wesneski. With the 28-year-old Tucker only under team control through ‘25 – setting him up for free agency in the coming offseason – it was a playoffs-or-bust move by the Cubs’ front office.

So far, the trade has paid off for the North Siders.

Tucker has been playing at an elite level, hitting .291/.399/.534 (.933 OPS) with 16 home runs and 49 RBIs in 79 games for the National League Central-leading Cubs. He has been entrenched in the second slot of Chicago’s lineup, which has been one of the top offensive units in the Majors this season.

The question hanging over the Cubs is whether the front office can ink Tucker to a long-term extension rather than see him leave via the open market.

“We’re just going to keep that between us,” Tucker said of any extension talks with president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer. “If anything happens, I’m sure you guys will know.”

Tucker added that, “it’s been a great organization that I’ve been a part of this year.” And the star outfielder believes the Cubs do have the makings of a team that can not only contend for the rest of this season, but in the coming years.

“Yeah, I always see our ranking for the Minor Leaguers and all the prospects and stuff,” Tucker said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys here that have played really well and I think they’re going to continue that throughout their careers. So, I think there is a good foundation here for success not just this year, but afterwards.”

The finalists for the All-Star starting lineups will be unveiled on MLB Network at 5 p.m. CT today, following Phase 1 voting for this year’s ballot. Fans have until 11 a.m. CT to continue to cast votes.

As of Monday’s latest results, the Cubs had three players (outfielders Pete Crow-Armstrong, Tucker and catcher Carson Kelly) in position to move on to Phase 2, which will include the top two vote-getters at each position and the top six outfielders. The top overall vote-getter in the American and National League automatically will secure a starting spot.

Among NL outfielders, Crow-Armstrong ranked first in the most recent voting with 2,005,630, followed by Teoscar Hernández (1,366,537) of the Dodgers and Tucker (1,219,866). Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. (1,140,061) and Juan Soto (1,048,781) of the Mets were next in the voting.

Dodgers catcher Will Smith (2,099,944) had a considerable lead over Kelly (769,860), but Phase 1 vote totals do not carry over into Phase 2, which runs between 11 a.m. CT on Monday and 11 a.m. CT on Wednesday. During the three-day period, fans can vote once per day, with the results being revealed at 6 p.m. CT on Wednesday on ESPN.

Cubs DH Seiya Suzuki had 17 balls in play with an exit velocity of at least 110 mph, entering play on Wednesday. That was already a single-season career best for Suzuki and tied for the sixth-highest mark by a Cubs batter in the Statcast Era (since 2015). Which Cubs batter has the most in one year?

A. Jorge Soler

B. Willson Contreras

C. Kyle Schwarber

D. Javier Báez

• Cubs' bats come alive early in victory over Cardinals. More >>

• Team backs PCA after rare outfield mistake in St. Louis. More >>

•  Cubs hope Ben Brown benefits from reset with Triple-A Iowa. More >>

• Rough outing against Cardinals a microcosm of Brown’s season. More >>

• Latest rumors with the Trade Deadline roughly a month away. More >>

“I’m continuously working on improving my game in all ways, without losing sight of the things that I do well. I’m definitely always looking for ways to impact the ball more and hit for power, which isn’t always home runs. It’s extra-base hits. But I always want to do all parts of the game well.” -- Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner, whose homer on Tuesday was his first blast since Sept. 25 last year

C. Kyle Schwarber

Schwarber launched 34 balls with an exit velo of at least 110 mph in his 2019 season with the Cubs, per Statcast. Next on this list are Contreras (24 in ‘21), Anthony Rizzo (23 in ‘19), Contreras again (21 in ‘22), Soler (18 in ‘15) and Suzuki (17 this year) and Báez (17 in ‘18).

To subscribe to Cubs Beat, visit this page and mark "Cubs Beat" from our newsletter list. Make sure you're following the Cubs or that they're checked as your favorite team.

View Online

© 2025 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Please review our Privacy Policy.

You (mlb-newsletters@mlb.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages or purchased a ticket from MLB. 

Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe or log in and manage your email subscriptions.

Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.