Chicago Cubs (finally) put Kyle Tucker on the IL. What now?

But being ready to go upon his return no longer seems like a given.

When Cubs manager Craig Counsell, who was previously confident about his outfielder not needing an IL stint, was asked about Tucker returning at full speed, he was disturbingly non-committal.

“At this point, I don’t know,” Counsell said. “I’m hopeful, but I think I was wrong in terms of avoiding the IL. We just have to get to a point where he’s not symptomatic and not feeling it doing baseball activities.”

Another botch on a Kyle Tucker injury?

Counsell and the Cubs had taken some extreme heat less than three weeks earlier, when it was revealed that Tucker had been allowed to play with a hairline fracture in his hand suffered in early June, an injury that would eventually alter his hitting mechanics and result in an extended career-worst slump. The overwhelming public opinion was that the Cubs should’ve placed Tucker on the IL rather than have him try to tough his way through the injury.

“He was sore for a little while, but was able to play,” Counsell told reporters at the time. “We did some more imaging and it showed a small fracture that was healing. And that’s it. Is it possible that this, through the playing through it, changed some things? Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s probably likely that at some point that happened. But, he wanted to play.”

Frustratingly, this latest Tucker injury came just as the multi-tool star had seemingly got his hitting back on track. In the 11 games since being temporarily benched for a “reset” and September 2, he had batted .400 with 4 home runs and 11 RBIs.

After this latest time off, Tucker had reportedly felt better and was close to a return. On Monday, though, he ran through some drills to test the calf and, according to Counsell, “it didn’t respond well.”

The Chicago Cubs’ (and Tucker’s) plans going forward

“I was hoping to feel good today and coming in and hopefully getting in there,” Tucker said on Tuesday. “But obviously, it didn’t really work out like that, so that part is kind of frustrating. I’ve just got to kind of take care of it for now and get back whenever I can.”

“Obviously, you’ve got to take it day by day,” he added. “I mean, I was hoping to play today, but that’s not really going to happen. That’s my goal — do everything I can to try to get back as soon as the amount of time’s up.”

In the meantime, the Cubs will have Seiya Suzuki and Willi Castro sharing right field duties. They’ve also called up Moises Ballesteros from Triple-A Iowa as an added left-handed bat.

Among fans and media, now, the talk has shifted from whether the Cubs will re-sign the free agency-bound Tucker to whether he will be of any use to the Cubs this postseason.