Cubs continue to play coy when pressed on Kyle Tucker's looming free agency

With three games left in the first half, the Chicago Cubs have held first place in the NL Central for three months, bouyed by MVP-caliber performances by outfielders Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker, who combined for a staggering 9.0 fWAR halfway through the season.

Crow-Armstrong is on his rookie contract and, while both sides have expressed interest in a long-term deal, with or without a new framework, he's under team control through the end of the decade. Tucker, meanwhile, will hit free agency at the end of the season - which is a definite factor for Cubs president of operations Jed Hoyer's trade deadline plans.

Both Tucker and Hoyer have spoke positively about Tucker's time in Chicago to this point, but nobody is saying anything committal past this year. That remained the case in Hoyer's recent sitdown with Cubs beat writers Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma over at The Athletic.

What we know the most about is where we are right now. Certainly, you’re always trying to balance those things. But what’s in front of us is really important. Obviously, he’s had a huge impact on our offense. He’s been terrific. Having him on base all the time and watching the quality of his at-bats has really had a huge impact. He’s just a great all-around player that has really benefitted us in so many ways. Clearly, this has been a really impressive position-playing group so far, and he’s a big part of that. Obviously, that’s going to factor into our calculus.

Cubs balancing winning in 2025 and 2026, being competitive long-term

The Cubs are focused on winning over the next two years, which has Hoyer balancing pushing his chips in and also maintaining a minor league talent pipeline to carry the organization forward. Expected to command $40+ million annually on his next contract, Tucker turns 29 in January - and whether or not Chicago retains his services could very well come down to the number of years they're willing to go to in their offer.

Tucker entered this weekend's series against the Yankees with a 150 wRC+, a higher walk rate (14.2 percent) than strikeout rate (13.9 percent) and a halo effect on the hitters around him. PCA gets most of the attention, but you can't sleep on the production we've seen from Michael Busch in a deeper lineup.

The Cubs want to win now - but they also need young talent, either to surround Tucker over the course of a long-term deal, or to attempt building a sustainable winner without him past 2025. The moves the front office makes in the coming weeks will be the first steps down that path.