One Chicago Cubs player has risen to the occasion early, leading the Cubs to a .500 record 10 games in.
All National League Central teams have wrapped at least two series, including Chicago who just completed their third series of the year with a sweep of the Athletics in Sacramento. And while it could have been considered impossible by some, Kyle Tucker is somehow exceeding Cubs fans' sky-high expectations just 10 games into the season.
In March, Andrew Simon of MLB.com placed Tucker at No. 10 in the 2025 Hitter Power Rankings. At the time, Simon's reasoning was due to the Tampa, Florida native delivering a 181 OPS+ and 23 homers in just 78 games in 2024 despite battling a lingering shin injury.
Tucker was originally drafted by the Houston Astros as the No. 5 overall pick in the first round of the 2015 MLB June Amateur Draft, after playing for H.B. Plant High School in Tampa, Florida. He was traded to the Cubs in exchange for Isaac Paredes, Hayden Wesneski and prospect Cam Smith in December of 2024.
Tucker's highlights this season?
A 1.228 OPS, more walks than strikeouts, tied for the league lead in RBI, a couple stolen bases, and a Statcast chart that is lit up with mind-numbing percentiles.
While, yes, it is silly to project a full season's worth of stats after only nine games, let's do it anyway. At his current pace, a 155 game stat line comes out to 69 homers, 189 RBI and 34 stolen bases by the end of the year.
It's safe to say that after these projections and homering in four straight games, Tucker has earned his spot in the 2025 Hitter Power Rankings and, thus, the NL Central hitter power rankings.
