Rest of Season Fantasy Baseball Rankings: All Tuckered Out

I have been relatively consistent in ranking Houston Astros star outfielder Kyle Tucker as a top-30 player in my ROS rankings. This is despite his prolonged absence. That is because it never felt like it would be a prolonged absence. Yet here we are two months removed from his last game. How exactly did we get here, and what can we expect from Tucker going forward?

Kyle Tucker was a first-round fantasy pick this season. Through the first two months of the season, he was having another elite fantasy campaign. Tucker played 60 of Houston’s first 61 games this season and had 19 home runs and 10 stolen bases. He also added 42 runs scored and 40 RBI. That would have put Tucker on a pace of about 110-45-105-25. And considering Tucker had only missed 41 games over the past four seasons, there was no reason to expect much less. That is why, when he fouled a ball off his shin on June 3, most of us did not think much of it. Especially after the x-rays came back negative.

After missing three games with what was described as a shin contusion, Houston put Tucker on the Injured List. I figured he would miss a week, maybe two weeks tops. That belief seemed to be fortified when Tucker ditched the crutches a couple of days after being placed on the IL. But by the time the 10 days were up, Tucker was still not ready to return. The next week or two was a string of “will he or won’t he” comments from management regarding Tucker’s resumption of baseball activities.  Then on June 25, the team released a statement saying that Tucker was swinging off a tee and could run the bases “soon”.  It seemed like the worst was over and Tucker would rejoin the team in short order. Or so we thought.

There was not much in the way of news surrounding Tucker’s return over the next week or so. Then on July 4, Houston announced that Tucker would be held out through the All-Star break. It was disappointing, but not overly alarming considering that the break was just over a week removed. Manager Joe Espada said a couple of days later that Tucker had resumed jogging. And a few days after that, he was playing catch at the ballpark. Then during the All-Star break, a report came out that Tucker had not resumed hitting and that the activities he was taking part in were light on-field activities. But a few days later, Tucker was performing intense defensive drills, including work in the outfield. Surely this was a step in the right direction, right? Well, about that…

There was not much news last week regarding Tucker’s status until the team transferred him to the 60-day IL on Tuesday. It felt like it was mostly a procedural move considering that Tucker had been out for 57 days at that point. However, when discussing a potential Tucker return on Saturday, Espada did not exactly inspire much confidence. He said that it would be “too aggressive” to say they’ll have him by the end of August.

When I was a kid, one of the older kids on our block threw a golf ball at us. It hit my brother in the shin, and he let out a wild wail. He rolled around like he had been shot, and his shin ballooned up with a huge welt. But since it was a contusion, my brother was back to normal in a couple of days. As I have stated many times, I am not a doctor, and I do not play one on TV or the internet. However, it seems like there is a lot more going on than a shin contusion. I don’t know if there was a misdiagnosis somewhere or what. But with the trade deadline gone in most fantasy leagues, managers relying on Kyle Tucker are kind of left holding the bag.

I dropped Tucker from 27th overall to 73rd overall in this week’s rest-of-season fantasy baseball rankings. And honestly, I have no idea if I dropped him far enough. If he comes back in the next few weeks, he can still make a big impact. Tucker is one of the best run producers in the game. Even if his ability to steal bases was wiped out, he can still be an elite fantasy player. However, your guess appears to be as good as mine as to when Tucker will return. In the meantime, keep it locked to our expert injury analyst Dave Funnell. He spends countless hours keeping everyone here updated on the latest injury news from around MLB.

Rest of Season Fantasy Baseball Rankings