Before the Pirates' spring training camp was forced to break up in mid-March, Cole Tucker and Rick Eckstein talked about the upcoming indefinite break.
This is a crucial year in the 24-year-old shortstop's development. While Tucker's glove and base running skills are both universally lauded, he struggled at the dish, batting .211 with a 64 OPS+ in his first taste of the majors the year before.
With that as context, what the Pirates' hitting coach told Tucker might be a bit surprising:
"All right, you had a really good spring. Don't mess this up."
It's easy to see where Eckstein was coming from. From a pure results standpoint, it was one of the best stretches Tucker had, batting .296 with three home runs. Even more encouraging was he was getting the ball in the air more often, driving it to all parts of the field.
That wasn't a coincidence. Tucker worked on a new swing path last offseason that leveraged his body better. The mindset is to make sure his swing finishes up, as though he was swinging through the batter's eye in center.
The immediate results were encouraging, so he continued to work on it during the shutdown.
"It wasn’t like, go home and add to that," Tucker said in a Zoom call after his workout Tuesday. "It was more so, go home and try to refine that and to continue to be good at what I was doing. It’s exciting to start taking what we’ve been doing in the cage or in BP onto the field in a competitive at-bat," he added shortly after. "That’s going to show up. I feel really confident about that, just like I told you guys in the spring. I’m really excited to see it play and see how it plays out.”
If Tucker can become a productive hitter, he could be part of the Pirates' young core for years to come.
"We all want to be a guy like a [Bryan] Reynolds or a [Kevin] Newman who can come in and make a difference," Tucker said. "With my skill and my ability, I feel like I can make a step forward."
Other news, notes, sounds and sights from Day 5 of Pirates summer camp Tuesday:
• During double-play drills Tuesday, Tucker lined up on the second base side.
• One day after saying the Altoona alternate training site had been affected by the slow COVID-19 results from Major League Baseball, that site was running Tuesday.
As for MLB camp, Tucker said he hasn't had any issues yet.
"There's a little bit of inconvenience getting here but we're getting it done and on our end it sounds like the Pirates are getting the tests back."
• Jacob Stallings caught Derek Holland's simulated game Tuesday. Stallings has talked about wanting to become more familiar with Holland's stuff since he didn't catch him in a game during spring training. This is the third time he's caught him during summer camp.
• Steven Brault was one of the few players who stayed in Bradenton for most of the shutdown since he was rehabbing a left shoulder strain. He ended doing more than just getting healthy, diving into the mechanics of his delivery with bullpen coach Justin Meccage and senior coordinator of rehab AJ Patrick to decrease the risk of the injury happening again, like it has the past two years.
"We worked on biomechanics and situations I have to put my body in during the delivery just to make sure I can stay healthy longer," Brault said during a Zoom call Tuesday. "I feel much better than I ever have, more confident, more strong and not just kind of flying everywhere like I used to do, which is nice."
• Jameson Taillon posts video of his first bullpen session in Pittsburgh with a catcher. Still a long way to go, but he is showing tremendous strides.
First Bullpen with the catcher back. Another check point in the rehab progression. Head down, keep growing and learning. Been fun to be putting in work with the guys again. No complaining from anyone, just getting after it and getting better. pic.twitter.com/QDZ5Ki2fcV
— Jameson Taillon (@JTaillon19) July 7, 2020
• Derek Shelton said the Pirates' alternate spring training camp in Altoona, Pa. is up in running after they got their COVID-19 results Tuesday morning. The Pittsburgh camp took another test Tuesday.
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