Mike Tuckman (33), who played for the Hanwha Eagles in the KBO last season, has been on a tear since returning to the big leagues. The Eagles, who chose Brian O’Grady (31) over Tuckman, are in the midst of a terrible offseason.
Tuckman started in the No. 7 spot in the lineup against the Cincinnati Reds on Monday (Sept. 29) at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, and went 3-for-4 with a home run and a run batted in.
Although the team went 5-8, Tuckman did a great job at the bottom of the batting order.
It had been more than two years since Turkman had three hits in a game in the big leagues, last on April 29, 2021, against the Colorado Rockies.
Tuckman, who made his big league debut with Colorado in 2017 and played for the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants through 2021, 메이저사이트 signed with Hanwha in the KBO last year.
He appeared in all 144 games, batting .289 with 12 home runs, 43 RBIs, and 19 doubles. Not bad for a player whose power and clutch ability left something to be desired.
However, Tuckman was eventually non-tendered by Hanwha and returned to the United States. He then signed a minor league deal with the Cubs to try again, and was called up to the big leagues on April 20 when Cody Bellinger was injured.
In nine games since his return, Tuckman is hitting .333 with five walks. He has started seven of those nine games and has driven in a run in four of them, proving that he can still be competitive.
Tuckman’s performance has been frustrating for Hanwha fans. The idea was that the team would bring in a more powerful hitter than Tuckman and expect him to hit a lot of home runs, but so far, that plan has gone completely awry.
O’Grady, who replaced Tuckman, has far less big league experience than Tuckman, but has proven to be a long ball hitter, hitting 15 home runs last year while playing full-time for the Seibu Lions of the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization. He was hampered by a poor batting average of just .213 and a high number of strikeouts (129 in 123 games), but the hope was that his home run production would be enough to offset that.
But when the lid was lifted, it read “despair. O’Grady is batting just .125 with eight RBIs in 22 games to date. He was acquired solely for his home run ability, but to date, he has zero home runs.
O’Grady was designated for assignment on March 23 and returned to the second team on March 11. He was given a chance under new manager Won-ho Choi after Carlos Suvero was fired, but he repeated his worst performance of the season, going 2-for-17 with nine strikeouts in five games, and was eventually designated for assignment again on April 20.
At this point, it’s hard to say when O’Grady will return to the first team.
The combination of O’Grady’s struggles and Tuckman’s performance only adds to the pain for the Rangers, who already lost closer Butch Smith to injury after just one opening day start.