Age: | 21 |
Bats/Throws: | L/R |
Height/Weight: | 6'4", 195 lbs |
Position: | Outfield |
Houston has had a stacked roster for the last few years, but, with the exception of George Springer , there has been a deficiency in the outfield. Well, with a week left before the MLB All-Star break the Astros have decided to remedy that issue with a call-up of their top prospect, Kyle Tucker.
Tucker was taken by the Astros in the first round (fifth overall) of the June 2015 MLB draft, and joined his older brother Preston Tucker in the organization. Since then, Preston has moved on to Atlanta but Kyle remained and flew through the Astros farm system, reaching Triple-A Fresno to start this year at just 21 years old. Prior to reaching Triple-A, though, he put up impressive, across-the-board stat lines at every level, including this year’s spring training where he was the Astros’ best hitter with a .406 average that came with five homers over 44 at-bats. As I wrote about in the early season prospect report, “Names to Know Part Two,” Tucker played 120 games in 2017 between High-A and Double-A while slashing .274/.346/.528 with 25 homers, 90 RBI, 70 runs, and 21 stolen bases. That 20-20 season made him one of just 10 guys to do that at all levels of the minors last year as well as the youngest (20 years old) since Javier Báez did it in 2013.
The 2017 campaign was also the only season in which his K-rate went over 20-percent with the rest of the seasons having been in the mid-teens combined. A low K-rate is nice, but what’s even better is his ability to draw walks with a career BB-rate of close to nine-percent. Plenty of young hitters, even the supposed superstars can struggle with their plate discipline, so Tucker seems to be ahead of the learning curve.
Though he plays the field right-handed, Tucker stands as a lefty in the batter’s box. His left-handed stroke is a bit wonky at times but it seems to work for him and he produces a relatively even split between line drives, ground balls, and fly balls. The rates sit at 25.3%, 38.5%, and 36.2% respectively this season at Triple-A Fresno, but they aren’t much different than year’s past. The bigger issue for him is how he gets a bit pull-happy at times, consistently hovering at 45-50% pull contact in his career.
Offense is what everyone focuses on, especially from a fantasy prospective, however defense is what can keep you on the field as a young player trying to adjust to the bigs. Tucker has that too. Though he’s mostly played in center field, until this year, he will be a corner outfielder in Houston. The average speed he possesses and the sometimes-looping paths he takes to the ball appear to limit him from playing center regularly, as does the presence of George Springer . In the 380 minor league games he’s played, Tucker has only committed eight errors and only one in the 80 games at Triple-A this year.
In the prospect report piece from early April, I suggested that if the Astros outfield continued to struggle, Tucker would get the call earlier in the year rather than later, and that has now happened. Fantasy Alarm’s own Craig Mish and Howard Bender, as well as Jim Bowden, all talked about his impending call-up earlier this week when the Future’s Game rosters came out and Tucker wasn’t on it. This speaks to the fact that reading and listening to the stuff we put out will keep you ahead of the game when big moves happen.
One last note, Kyle Tucker is the 17th player from his draft class, 2015, to make it to the majors already and there are still several well-known prospects that are on the verge of making it. There are five guys from the top-36 picks in that draft who could still come up this year, with Brendan Rodgers being the highest of those at the third overall pick and Ryan Mountcastle being the lowest at the 36th overall pick. Kevin Newman is also in that group, a shortstop prospect for the Pirates, and at this point in the season he looks like the next one to come up from that class. The Pirates middle infield has been bad this year, and Jordy Mercer especially hasn’t done much of anything at the plate…once again. So look for Pittsburgh to make a move there sooner rather than later.