Chicago Cubs News: Kyle Tucker will be just fine, Justin Steele, and Gage Workman

The Chicago Cubs have lost their first two games of the 2025 season, and naturally, the overreaction has already reached a fever pitch.

Of course, all eyes are on the "struggles" of Kyle Tucker. Tucker had one hit during Cactus League play for Cubs and after a hitless debut with the team on Tuesday, he did manage to have a double in Wednesday's loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Tucker's double was the only hit he had in Japan. Given the nature of the Cubs' offseason, and Tucker being the primary addition, fans are already jumping to the extreme when it comes to his struggles.

However, Tucker's swing results confirm that there is very little reason for fans to be worried.

Using Wednesday's loss to the Dodgers as the data set, Tucker had three batted balls that were among the game's leaders in distances. The distances were 370 feet, 351 feet, and 323 feet. Baseball can be unlucky and when that happens at the start of the season, fans falsely use that as reason to believe a player is slumping.

Chicago Cubs News: Justin Steele notches a career milestone

Wednesday's start against the Dodgers was one that Justin Steele will want to forget. Steele was tagged for 5 runs on 5 hits including 2 home runs. There is a sense that Steele's struggles can be chalked up to the fact he is starting against the Dodgers, but it should be noted that he left his pitches up in the zone. When that is the case, Steele will struggle against any team, not just the Dodgers.

However, if there was a silver lining for Steele, it's that he recorded the 500th strikeout of his career on Wednesday.

Steele has been one of the Cubs' pitching infrastructure's biggest success stories and Wednesday’s career milestone is more proof of that.

Chicago Cubs News: No Gage Workman in the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers

One surprising takeaway from the Cubs' losses to the Dodgers was that Gage Workman did not make an appearance. Veteran Jon Berti got the start at second base in each game. Which, not to toot our own horn, we told you that Berti was the more valuable bench piece than Workman or Vidal Bruján.

However, back to the topic at hand. Workman not appearing in the Tokyo games could be a sign that the Cubs are leaning toward keeping Bruján over the Rule 5 draft pick. Bruján did appear in Wednesday's game as a pinch runner.