Pittsburgh Pirates 2021 Previews: IF Cole Tucker

Cole Tucker has bounced around the Pirates since making his debut in 2019 but hasn't yet shown sustained success. 2021 is a big season as the former first-round pick looks to prove he belongs in the Major Leagues.

On April 20th, 2019, 22-year-old infielder Cole Tucker, a first-round pick in the 2014 MLB Draft, made his Major League debut for the Pittsburgh Pirates. After spending the previous five seasons in the Minor Leagues, Tucker was ready to come up and officially make his mark on the Major League club. His first MLB game was shortened due to rain, but Tucker made his impact felt, going 1-3, but that one hit was a two-run home run that would give the Pirates a 3-1 win over the San Francisco Giants. Things looked to be heading in the right direction for Tucker as he picked up a hit in his first three games, and was batting .300 through his first 10 at-bats.

However, that hot bat would not stay, as he managed to hit just .211 with two home runs and 13 RBI in that first season while losing the starting shortstop job to Kevin Newman. Since then, he has bounced around the Pirates playing primarily in the outfield last season as there was no room in the infield for the 23-year-old. The outfield experiment didn't really work out for Tucker, and being that he was trying to learn a new position defensively, his offense suffered. He ended up hitting just .220 with a home run and eight RBI in what was an overall disappointing year. Now that he is back in the infield in 2021, Tucker looks to put more emphasis on his offensive play so he can make a difference in the Pirate's starting lineup.

Transition Year

While Cole Tucker gained valuable experience to help his versatility in 2020, I think overall it is a season that the infielder would like to forget. When the Pirates essentially ran out of outfield depth at the Major League level, Tucker stepped up and was determined to learn the outfield to help out his team any way he could. He ended up seeing significant playing time in the outfield after Polanco had a bout with COVID-19 and Jarrod Dyson was traded, but the more he was out there the more he seemed to struggle. On paper, he did not commit an error all year in the outfield, but he was taking bad routes to balls. He had an outfield success rate of just 82% last year, and a success rate added of -2%.

Because of the transition, and the struggles that came with it, his offensive numbers began to suffer as well. He put together a decent Spring Training and had the most productive spring he had ever had. In 15 Spring Training games, Tucker managed to hit .273 with three home runs and seven RBI over 33 at-bats. Initially, that momentum followed Tucker north, as he hit .273 with a double through his first four games. However, as he was allotted more playing time, his numbers started to drop off as his average was down to .148 by August 9th. From August 1st to August 9th, Tucker had just one hit, his lone home run of the year, and struck out three times without drawing a walk.

Tucker would have some work to do for the rest of the month, but he was slowly able to get his average back to a respectable .243 by month's end. The Pirates would end up trading Jarrod Dyson at the trade deadline, and that all but secured Tucker's spot in centerfield. He started playing in center field every day on September 1st but just couldn't find his offensive rhythm. After going 6-25 (.240) at the start of the month, Tucker would only pick up one hit in his next 14 at-bats from September 8th to September 16th. However, his season would come to a crashing halt when he suffered a concussion on September 17th. Tucker was placed on the injured list for the first time in his career and ended up missing the rest of the season. It was a bad end to a bad season, but Tucker is looking to use the results to help motivate him to be better.

Moving Back to the Infield

The 2021 season offers Tucker the chance to get back to some form of normalcy that he didn't see in 2020. With the addition of a few outfielders like Brian Goodwin and Troy Stokes Jr., Tucker has the chance to move back to the infield, where he has excelled in the past. Throughout his Minor League career, Tucker had always been a consistent hitter, with his batting average sitting over the .255 mark in five of his six Minor League seasons. With that, Tucker also showed strong defensive skills with a fielding percentage in the upper 900s every season. With the Pirates in a rebuild, defensive play is going to be key and may factor into who ends up winning the starting job at shortstop.

One thing Tucker is known for is his quick reaction time from the shortstop position. He has average speed that allowed him to cover 32.5 feet of ground on average last season. While he won't need to cover that at shortstop, it is his burst and reaction time that are key, and he ranked at the top of the league in both last season. His average burst time in 2029 was 0.5 seconds and his route time was just 0.3 seconds, both ranking in the top 20% of the league. During his first stint as a Big League shortstop, Tucker performed well with a .986 fielding percentage while committing just two errors. He was a part of 20 double plays and was able to transition seamlessly on the defensive side of the ball.

The key to Tucker's success in the Big Leagues now and in the future is going to be how he performs on the offensive side of the ball. He has been working with hitting coach Rick Eckstein and assistant hitting coach Christian Marrero on improving his batting stance. His goal this off-season was to do a complete overhaul of his stance so that by Opening Day he can prove that he can consistently hit the ball in the Major Leagues. He has some competition in front of him in Kevin Newman and Erik Gonzalez, but it is up to Tucker to show that he can handle the rigors of being an everyday player. 2021 might be Tucker's last shot to prove he can swing it in the Big Leagues, and it starts right from day one of Spring Training.