Pittsburgh (93.7 The Fan) - In his first 56 games in the Major Leagues, Cole Tucker showed the Pirates an excellent glove at shortstop and some shortcomings at the plate.
Slick in the field with a strong arm, Tucker batted .211 with a .266 OBP in his rookie season. At the same time, he watched his friend, and fellow rookie, Kevin Newman enjoy a strong 2019 season and secure the shortstop job.
"I'm super happy for him," Tucker said after Tuesday's workouts at PNC Park. "It's not like a weird thing where I'm rooting for Newman to do bad. I can be happy for him and be happy for me. It's never a negative relationship. We hang out in the offseason. On the outside looking in it might look like it's awkward and weird because we play the same position. We're teammates, we're boys and we're competitors at the same time. It's a weird concoction of friendship, but we make it work pretty well."
After last season, there were reports that the Pirates were willing to trade second baseman Adam Frazier or perhaps move him to the outfield in order to play Tucker or Newman at second. There wasn't a trade, and manager Derek Shelton said this week there are no plans for Frazier to play the outfield, and outside of occassionally being used as the designated hitter, he'll be the everyday second baseman.
The Pirates also have veteran infield depth with Erik Gonzalez, J.T. Riddle and Phillip Evans. It all adds up to Tucker, who turned 24 last week, being nowhere certain of making the Pirates 30-man opening day roster. And with no minor league season it could leave him without games to play.
"That's a great question, and it's not for me to answer, really. I still believe I have the tools to be an everyday shortstop. However that may shake out, I'm here to help the team win in whatever capacity that is. If they want me to play centerfield, I'll play centerfield. If they want me to be the batboy, I'll be the batboy. And I'm going to try my hardest to be all of those things. I think I bring pieces to the puzzle that help us be a better team."
While Tucker is willing to give the outfield a try, he said he has only worked at shortstop during the early part of summer camp. He also knows his chances of sticking with the Pirates and gaining playing time will increase with better production as a hitter.
"It's really cool to dream on and to think about and to work towards. Ultimately, we all want to be that guy like a Reynolds last year, a Newman last year, a guy that comes in and makes a difference every day. I think I bring a lot of things to the table like speed and being able to score runs and being able to drive in runs that I think will make us a better team in the long run. So, yeah that could be really cool, and I could wear a lot of hats in the lineup, especially being a switch hitter."
Entering spring training, Tucker made some adjustments to his swing and the results were favorable as he batted close to .300 with three home runs before the exhibition season was halted. He then left for home in Arizona with words of advice from hitting coach Rick Eckstein.
"Rick was like 'you had a really good spring training. Don't mess this up..Go home and continue to work on what you've been working on this spring,' so it was go home and try to refine that and continue to be good at what I was doing. I feel really confident, and I'm excited to see it play out."
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