The Chicago Cubs are closing out their 2025 regular season with a series against the St. Louis Cardinals in Chicago, and the news couldn\u2019t be better for fans: Kyle Tucker is returning to the lineup. Tucker, who missed nearly all of September with a calf injury, confirmed he will play against the Cardinals, giving the Cubs a major boost heading into the postseason.<\/p>\n
Tucker, 28, was acquired from the Houston Astros in the offseason and has been a key piece of the Cubs\u2019 offense. This season, he\u2019s hitting .270 with 22 home runs, 73 RBIs, 132 hits, and an .853 OPS. Among Cubs hitters with significant at-bats, only Moises Ballesteros has a higher OPS, showing just how important Tucker is to the lineup.<\/p>\n
The Cubs will face the San Diego Padres in the Wild Card round, and Tucker\u2019s return means he won\u2019t be starting the playoffs rusty. Instead, he\u2019ll have a few games to shake off the layoff before the games really matter. His presence strengthens Chicago\u2019s chances to secure home-field advantage, as a win in the final series would lock in the fourth seed in the National League.<\/p>\n
Tucker\u2019s return is also notable because he\u2019ll be a free agent at the end of the year. While there\u2019s uncertainty about whether he\u2019ll re-sign, having him in the lineup now gives the Cubs a major postseason weapon regardless of what happens after the season.<\/p>\n
The Cubs originally traded Cam Smith and Isaac Paredes to Houston for Tucker. While both players have contributed for the Astros, Houston is on the verge of missing the playoffs, highlighting the impact of Tucker\u2019s acquisition for Chicago.<\/p>\n
With the regular season winding down and the playoffs looming, Tucker\u2019s return couldn\u2019t have come at a better time. Fans will be excited to see him take the field against the Cardinals as the Cubs begin the final stretch before October baseball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Chicago Cubs are closing out their 2025 regular season with a series against the St. Louis Cardinals in Chicago,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":89111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[32709],"class_list":["post-89110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-kyle-tucker"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}