1 Cubs player whose spring has not matched his regular season performance so far

Remember when Cactus League action wrapped up and Kyle Tucker was the not-so-proud owner of a .443 OPS? Chicago Cubs fans were doom spiraling as the Houston Astros added Cam Smith to their Opening Day roster and there was just a lot of anxiety and worry going around.

How a week (not even) changes things. Tucker enters Wednesday afternoon's series finale against the Athletics carrying a four-game homer, a 1.301 OPS and an MLB-best 12 hits. Meanwhile, Smith has a .539 OPS and just four hits in his first four big-league games. That's no sort of indictment of the former Cubs prospect. Really, it's just a manner of reinforcing a point that Cubs fans seemed to willingly disregard all spring: spring training stats do not matter.

Smith tore it up in Cactus League action (albeit against the equivalent of Double-A pitching) while Tucker clearly hadn't locked in his timing just yet. He showed signs of life in the Tokyo Series against the Dodgers but has really rounded into form in recent days - looking like a legitimate MVP candidate in the National League.

With his home run on Tuesday night, Tucker set a new career-high by homering in four straight contests - and it's not like he's just homering in one at-bat and making outs in others. In those games, he's gone 10-for-18 (.555) with the aforementioned four long balls, 8 RBI, four doubles and nine runs scored. Oh, and he's got as many walks as strikeouts during that stretch (four each).

Given all the hand-wringing that was going on just weeks ago when Tucker was struggling during spring training, it's been a dramatic turnaround for the three-time All-Star. Some looked at his monster half-season from a year ago with a degree of apprehension: after all, putting up a near-5.0 bWAR season without playing even 80 games isn't something we typically see.

But his hot-out-of-the-gate start to the 2025 season suggests it was no fluke and the Cubs are poised to reap the benefits of a mammoth year from their new outfielder. The question now becomes: just how much will he command on the free agent market this fall if he has a career year? Or, perhaps more importantly, will Tom Ricketts step up to the plate and be the owner who gets the deal done?