Why now was the time for Cubs to pay 'real price' for star Kyle Tucker

Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and Astros general manager Dana Brown “missed each other,” as Hoyer put it, at the GM meetings in San Antonio last month. So, they hopped on a phone call soon after.

That’s when Brown mentioned that three-time All-Star Kyle Tucker, who is entering a walk year, could be available.

That conversation kicked off the negotiations that brought Tucker to Chicago. The Cubs sent third baseman Isaac Paredes – who the Astros called about after the Cubs acquired him at the trade deadline – right-hander Hayden Wesneski, and 2024 first-round pick Cam Smith to Houston in return.

“We have a lot of really good players on the team; we're very balanced,” Hoyer said in a Zoom conference Tuesday. “But it did feel like we lacked that consolidation of WAR [wins above replacement], on our roster in one player. And, obviously, Tucker's one of the best players in baseball, period.”

Tucker, who was juggling groomsman duties for former teammate Myles Straw’s wedding while fielding calls about the trade as it came together Friday, has only played for one organization. The Astros have been in the playoffs every year since Tucker debuted in 2018, and they reached the World Series three times in that span. Meanwhile, the Cubs haven’t been to the postseason since 2020, when they were swept by the Marlins in a best-of-three wild card.

Tucker said that recent history doesn’t change anything for him.

“I’m not going to show up just to go out there and play and lose,” he said in his introductory Zoom conference Tuesday. “If I'm going to show up, might as well win. So, that's the mindset I take into every game, every single day, and try and express that throughout the team as well. That's how the vibe and our clubhouse has been in Houston, and I'm hoping to try and replicate that the exact same way in Chicago.”

Tucker is only under team control for the next year. And to land him, the Cubs had to give up an All-Star third baseman who doesn’t hit free agency until after the 2027 season, a young pitcher with potential still to unlock, and a prospect who immediately slotted in as the best in the Astros’ farm system.

“Obviously, to acquire a player like that, it comes at a real price,” Hoyer said. “But it's a price we were willing to pay, given the fact that that was something we felt all summer that we lacked. … There's just not that many players out there that were available that we felt like, ‘Okay, this player clearly makes us a better team, he provides something we don't have.’ And obviously, Tucker provides that. So that was a big part of the impetus to doing the trade.”

Hoyer has long talked about balancing “moves for now and for the future,” but it’s clear that, with the farm system built up and the clock ticking, the emphasis has shifted towards the present. And Tucker, who somewhat flew under the radar with the Astros, is the face of that change.

“I just try and do my part to help out and do what we need to do to win games,” Tucker said when presented with that reality. “Whether that's trying to make a diving play, or move a runner over, get a hit, steal a bag, I'm going to try and do everything that I'm capable of doing and try to do it at a high level.”

The Cubs still have questions stemming from the trade to answer, even after sending outfielder Cody Bellinger to the Yankees on Tuesday in a payroll-dumping trade that also addressed the team’s surplus of right fielders.

With Paredes gone, the Cubs have a spot to fill at third base. They could add infield depth with external options. Internally, though Micahel Busch has experience at third, Hoyer said the organization sees him as a potential “Gold Glove first baseman.” Top prospect Matt Shaw can move around the infield, but Hoyer said they’ll now take a “long look at third” with him.

“You've got to give young players some runway and some ability to play,” Hoyer said. “And, obviously, it's not always linear. But, certainly, you've got to give at-bats to talented young players. And Matt has certainly put himself in position to be considered for something like that.”

The Cubs will continue to fill out their roster, within the budget constraints made clear by the Bellinger trade. But after that, the next question is, can they extend Tucker?

“When you acquire a player like that, you want to have that player for a long time,” Hoyer said. “And I think that certainly, there will be contact with his agents, that we’ll have discussions.”

For his part, Tucker said he’s “open” to extension talks.

“Chicago's a great city to play in, a great city just in general,” he said. “So, I'm open for anything.”

If those efforts don’t work, with Juan Soto’s record-breaking deal no doubt making free agency even more tantalizing, will the Cubs make an effort next offseason to re-sign Tucker? The answer to that question will rely on the budget set by ownership.