Cole Tucker attempted his MLB comeback in 2023

Welcome to the 2023 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2023. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.

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No. 31, Cole Tucker: 0.0 rWAR

We are finally out of the negatives for Ranking the Rockies!

First up in neutral territory is Cole Tucker. The 27-year-old utilityman was originally drafted 24th overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2014 MLB Draft and made his MLB debut on April 20, 2019. He played 56 games during his rookie season, and, so far, that’s a career-high for him. He’s ridden the Triple-A/MLB roller coaster and suffered a few injuries, but unfortunately, he just really hasn’t stuck anywhere.

Tucker was DFA’d by the Pirates on May 30, 2022, and then was claimed off waivers by his hometown Arizona Diamondbacks on June 5 but never saw big-league action with them. He elected free agency at the end of the season and was signed by the Rockies to a minor-league deal in December.

After dealing with some injuries and making some adjustments, Tucker finally was brought up on August 7. He played in three games (slashing .429/.500/.429) before being DFA’d and outrighted to Albuquerque on August 14. He was brought back up on September 5, played in two more games (1.000/1.000/1.000) before being DFA’d and outrighted again on September 11.

Tucker elected free agency on October 3.

In five games and eight at-bats with the Rockies, Tucker slashed .500/.600/.500 with two RBI, one walk and two strikeouts. Again, a player with fewer than 10 at-bats in 2023 is ranked 30th on our list! Wild...

Tucker was a highly-touted prospect in his early days, but just hasn’t lived up to the hype. But luckily for him, he has a high-profile wedding coming up, and life looks pretty good for him otherwise!