Why MLB’s pitch clock led Astros’ Kyle Tucker to ditch barehanded hitting
HOUSTON — Kyle Tucker batted barehanded for most of his first five major-league seasons. He wore batting gloves in cold weather or to shake things up while mired in a slump, but never for more than a week or so. The throwback style turned into Tucker’s trademark, a distinct statement from an otherwise nondescript slugger.
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Tucker tailored an entire pre-pitch routine around the absence of batting gloves. He stepped out of the batter’s box between each offering, took a fistful of dirt, rubbed it between his bare hands and drew a few deep breaths before stepping back in.
“It was kind of just to clear my head,” Tucker said on Sunday. “Some guys step out and take a deep breath, but that was just my way of doing it.”
But that’s far too much to fit into seven seconds. He tried to condense his routine in accordance with Major League Baseball’s new pitch clock — batters must be alert to the pitcher with eight seconds remaining — but it wasn’t working.
In mid-June, Tucker decided to abandon his career-long comfort for the sake of stamina: now, he wears batting gloves exclusively.
“Before I started wearing (the gloves) every day, those 15 seconds, I was a little out of breath with it and I figured I’d just try batting gloves to catch my breath,” Tucker said. “That’s roughly how it started.”
Since June 13, which was the first day it became apparent Tucker had given up hitting barehanded, he has 30 extra-base hits, and his OPS has climbed from .773 to .897. Only eight qualified hitters entered Sunday with a higher one. Tucker’s ascension up American League leaderboards has coincided with the apparel change, but he downplayed its overall importance prior to Sunday’s 2-1 loss against the Angels.
“The first month of the season, I hit pretty well and wasn’t wearing them then,” said Tucker, who had an .859 OPS in his first 28 games this season. “But I kind of figured out my swing and my approach kind of roughly around when I started wearing them. I just tried to keep that super consistent, and that’s kind of how it’s all lined up.
“I was going up there just trying to be athletic and hit. You can get away with that at times but not super consistently and I struggled for a little bit. Found a good swing that I tried to stick with and it’s been good since then.”
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Tucker has long been among the quietest players in baseball, but has made it a season-long mission to step out of his shell. He started in spring training, calling the pitch clock “another advantage” pitchers have over hitters. He said he felt “rushed” during Grapefruit League play, and called for Major League Baseball to add time onto the clock.
Four months into the regular season, few of Tucker’s feelings have changed. He values time between pitches to diagnose what he just saw and what may soon follow, part of what he’s previously called “the strategy of hitting.”
In a sense then, the batting gloves are a part of that strategy.
Last October, Tucker said he wore gloves early in his high school career, but stopped after ripping a few pairs, and not purchasing new ones. Money is no longer an obstacle, but pacing himself is.
“I probably just don’t rush through my routine, so I can just kind of catch my breath in between pitches,” Tucker said of his life back with batting gloves. “That’s probably the biggest part. I don’t feel like I’m out of breath when I step in the box.”
Tucker whacked his team-leading 29th double of the season during Sunday’s loss. He is the only American League player with at least 22 stolen bases and 22 home runs and — with 44 games remaining — he could become the second player in franchise history to tally a 30-30 season. Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell is the only other.
Bagwell, like Tucker, had a signature style all his own: that bent-knee batting stance still imitated to this day in Houston homes. A pitch clock may have cramped Tucker’s style, but he’s found a fine middle ground.
“Right now, I just step out, spit on the ground, kick the dirt off my shoes and catch my breath,” Tucker said.
Award streak continues?
Yordan Alvarez unanimously won American League Rookie of the Year in 2019. In the three seasons since, the Astros have had at least one player finish in the top-five of balloting. Cristian Javier finished third in 2020 and Luis Garcia was the runner-up in 2021 — two unheralded pitchers who rose to relevance from relative anonymity.
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Now, J.P. France is positioning himself to join them. It will be difficult for the 28-year-old right-hander to pass some everyday offensive players and win this year’s Rookie award, but France has, at the very least, done enough to appear on some of the 30 writers’ ballots and prolong the franchise’s streak. (Each ballot contains three ranked players.)
France fired seven more impressive innings on Saturday against the Angels, lowering his ERA to 2.74 across his first 102 major-league innings. He has thrown into the seventh inning during nine of his first 16 major-league starts. He’s allowed three or fewer runs in all of them.
Entering Sunday, only nine other rookie pitchers had thrown at least 100 innings. None of them had a lower ERA than France. Only one, Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee, had a sub-3 mark.
According to Baseball-Reference, France and Bibee entered Sunday worth an identical 2.5 wins above replacement. Bibee is worth 2.0, according to FanGraphs, while France is at 1.7. Bibee has made two more starts than France, who debuted in early May in the wake of Garcia’s season-ending elbow injury.
France does not have the volume of work other rookie pitchers boast, nor has he received much acclaim from across the sport. France’s teammate and fellow rookie, Hunter Brown, started the season in Houston’s rotation and has thrown 123 1/3 innings across 22 starts.
Barring something silly, one among Rangers third baseman Josh Jung, Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson, Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida or Rays outfielder Luke Raley should win the award. No pitcher has won Rookie of the Year in either league since Milwaukee closer Devin Williams claimed National League honors in 2020.
Baltimore Orioles setup man Yennier Cano made the American League All-Star team in his first season and will be a trendy choice for voters looking to add a pitcher onto a ballot that will be dominated by position players.
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Shohei Ohtani won the American League award in 2018, but Detroit’s Michael Fulmer was the last full-time pitcher to win it in 2016. Fulmer threw 159 innings and finished the season with a 3.06 ERA. France, it stands to reason, could match those numbers.
The ace’s routine
Calling Justin Verlander just a “creature of habit” doesn’t feel appropriate. He puts immense value in his routine, one he’s honed across a 17-year Hall of Fame career while — for the most part – pitching every fifth day.
Last season, Verlander made an exception. The Astros wanted to exercise caution in his first season back from Tommy John surgery and carried a surplus of starting pitching. Verlander made just five of his 28 starts on four days of rest as a result. Houston deployed a six-man rotation for much of last season, forcing Verlander to make 16 starts on five days of rest.
The team intends to do something similar this year, but not if it means Verlander will receive too much time off.
So, on Wednesday, Verlander is scheduled to start against the Miami Marlins on four days of rest. Pitching coach Josh Miller was adamant on Sunday that Verlander has not vocalized a desire to stay pitching every fifth day, but acknowledged the team must keep his routine in mind when mapping out its rotation. Houston has a scheduled off day on Thursday.
“I think with him being very routine-oriented, having the extra, extra day (off) is not great for him, that’s part of what went into the decision for him to go on regular rest here, so he didn’t have two extra days,” Miller said.
The decision came at Brown’s expense. Instead of taking his turn in the rotation on Wednesday, the rookie right-hander will be available out of the bullpen during the Marlins series. If Brown doesn’t appear, the team is planning to start him at some point during its series against Seattle this weekend.
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The Astros are treating Brown much like they did France during his last trip through the rotation: France made his first major-league relief appearance in a tandem start with José Urquidy at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 6.
France returned to the rotation Saturday against the Angels. He worked seven innings, inflating his season-long workload to a career-high 121 1/3 innings. Brown has already thrown 123 1/3 innings this season, three shy of his career-high. Protecting them both must be Houston’s foremost goal. Tactics like this should help, while also allowing Verlander to maintain his all-important routine.
Top photo: Bob Levey / Getty Images
