Kyle Tucker booed at Wrigley Field for not hustling

Chicago Cubs fans are not exactly pleased right now with The Kyle Tucker Experience.

The Cubs outfielder Tucker received boos during Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Ill. With Chicago trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Tucker hit a slow groundball to the right side of the infield.

Instead of running out the grounder, Tucker simply took a few steps out of the box … and then gave up. Though Tucker was never going to beat out that ball in the first place, the presumed apathy from him did not sit well with the home crowd.

Here is the video (in which you can hear the audible boos from the Cubs faithful over Tucker’s lack of hustle).

Chicago did come back to win the game by a final score of 4-3, and they now sit at a superb 70-53 on the year. But Tucker, who is in his first year with the Cubs, continues to be a mixed bag for the team.

Tucker’s surface numbers look pretty strong. He is batting .265 with 18 home runs, 62 RBIs, and 25 stolen bases (good enough for the second-best WAR on the Cubs this season behind only Pete Crow-Armstrong). But Tucker has really been slumping in the second half of the season (batting a miserable .198) and is clearly struggling to win over the Chicago fanbase right now.

After being acquired in a blockbuster trade with the Houston Astros last offseason, Tucker can become a free agent after the 2025 campaign. Unless the Cubs are willing to really pony up to keep Tucker this offseason (with some reported estimates on his next contract exceeding $600 million), he might end up being an expensive one-year rental for the team (though Tucker has also made strong arguments in favor of an extension from Chicago).