This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian¡¯s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
CHICAGO -- Kyle Tucker would not budge. With the bases loaded and two outs against Padres righty Nick Pivetta on Saturday, the Cubs star did not get what he wanted in their second-inning battle, watched five pitches go by and was perfectly fine with dropping his bat and taking his walk.
Tucker has embraced that mentality as he has gained experience and developed into one of baseball¡¯s elite hitters.
¡°Earlier in my career, I could hit pitches off the plate,¡± Tucker said. ¡°That doesn¡¯t necessarily mean I should swing at them or want to do that. I think if you just have good plate discipline and are able to take those pitches that are close or just off or whatever, and get into better counts, you¡¯ll get better pitches to hit.¡±
Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly referred to Tucker as the ¡°poster child¡± for that type of high-level plate discipline, but it has also been a lineup-wide priority for the North Siders out of the gates this season. Kelly and Chicago¡¯s hitting group has emphasized the idea of focusing on aggressiveness in the zone and avoiding the temptation to chase.
Entering Wednesday¡¯s action, that collective mindset had the Cubs sitting with a Major League-high 13.0% walk rate. Looking further under the hood, Chicago¡¯s offense had swung at just 29.7% of pitches outside the strike zone, ranking fifth best in MLB. On the other side, the Cubs¡¯ 69.2% rate of swings on in-zone pitches was 11th best in baseball.
¡°That's kind of the identity that we hope to create to kind of go along with the baserunning,¡± Kelly said. ¡°[Our message] was, 'Hey, we're going to be really aggressive in the zone and be super stubborn out of the zone.' That's kind of how I phrased it to them.¡±
So far, the Cubs¡¯ swinging-strike rate is down a bit from last season (10.4% in ¡®25 vs. 11.0% in ¡®24) and Chicago¡¯s 24.9% rate of called-and-swinging strikes combined this year was the lowest mark in MLB, entering Wednesday. And while the swings on pitches outside the zone have dropped (29.7% in ¡®25 vs. 31.1% in ¡®24), the contact on such pitches has climbed (65.7% in ¡®25 vs. 64.0% in ¡®24).
The Cubs recently had a string of four consecutive games with at least seven walks, which team historian Ed Hartig noted represented the longest such streak for the franchise since the mound was established at 60 feet, six inches from home plate in 1893.
¡°I think it¡¯s a sign of just battling through at-bats as much as anything,¡± Cubs manager Craig Counsell said of his team¡¯s early propensity for patience. ¡°I don¡¯t know if we¡¯re going to be a top-two team in walks, as we are right now, but I do think it¡¯s the patience to make a pitcher work and to bring him to what we want to hit, is something we have the ability to do."