Jesse Rogers
Chicago-“It’s a bell. Field-Center right. This one, Garcia, near the wall and … he reaches out and takes the grip. And Tucker absolutely wiped out that.
“There is a moment welcome to the field.”
It was the call of the advertiser Play-by-Play of Chicago Cubs, Jon Sciambi, on April 7, when Kyle Tucker flew up against the Texas Rangers after hitting a 104.6 MPH bullet with a launch angle of 29 degrees and an average of thread expected of 0.880. Instead of cleaning the fence, the ball fell into the glove of the right defender Adolis Garcia – graceful of the wind, which was blowing 17 mid / h. It was Tucker’s fourth game in his new home stadium.
“It was a start, I remember,” said the discreet tucker this week. “I struck it quite well from (Nathan) Eovaldi. He did not go out.”
It would be the first of several balls that Tucker struck well this season which died on the warning track – and he is not alone. Formerly known for high score matches, Wrigley Field has become one of the most difficult parks for strikers due to a change of wind in recent seasons.
In 81 games played on the north side of this year, including three in the Channel of the Joker last week (the Cubs opened the season with two home games in Japan), the wind blew in 51 times and 12 games presented a wind of the right -up field. It only exploded in 19 games. In 2024, the wind exploded in 39 times compared to 21 and 21 games with a transverse wind.
“Over the past two years, he has been blown in summer,” said the veterans cubs Ian Happ. “When it is hot, it is blown. And it is essentially the opposite of what it was traditionally. Now, when it’s cool, it blows.
“There does not seem to be rhyme or reason that we know, but it was different.”
The Cubs field goalkeeper, Dan Kiermaier, cannot determine the reason for a quarter of work, but the man who studies the wind models for the team can confirm that it is a real trend and not only the strikers noticing when the wind turns out to them.
“It’s a bit confusing. All my years before the past two years, the wind would blow in summer. I have no background frame or anything. I can’t really put my finger on the reason why it’s the way in the past two years.”
HAPP and his knocking colleagues hope a quarter of work outside when the series of the National League division resumes Wednesday evening in Wrigley, because temperatures were expected in the 1960s, but he does not count. Hot or fresh, the friendly limits were not a friend for the strikers.
“More than any park in which I played,” said Justin Turner, 40. “You cannot try to do something different. I hope he is hard in the wind and far from a defender.”
Wrigley Field ranked fourth for the strikers this year at an additional distance that a stage provided, according to Statcast, on the basis of elements that do not include temperature. Last year, he ranked 29th. In addition Wednesday, Cubs need runs to stay alive in the playoffs because they decrease 2-0 in their series of five best against the Brewers Milwaukee. They should Have an advantage dealing with domestic elements considering all the time and the energy that the team has devoted to it.
“Kiss Wrigley,” said coach Dustin Kelly. “Instead of moving away and saying that the wind will kill us today, how to return this and use the wind to our advantage today.”
How it has an impact on the strikers
After playing the first two NLDS games in Milwaukee to Climate Controld American Family Field, the initial adjustments to manage the conditions at Wrigley Field will start well before the first launch in match 3.
During their hitting meetings before each home game, Kelly shows a graph of how the wind blows that day. He is graceful of Kiermaier, the brother of the former major fever Kevin Kiermaier. It is as detailed as possible, but Chicago is not exactly the most predictable of cities with regard to its time.
“It will change,” said Kelly. “Our predictions are not always perfect, but you are trying to be as prepared as possible.”
For some strikers, thinking about the wind direction begins well before they arrive at the park.
“When I drive on Lake Shore Drive and see whether the lake is calm or not,” said Happ with a smile.
Inby Swanson added: “You can’t have him consume, but it’s also reality. You would be stupid as a player not to take him into consideration when you are going to play.”
Kelly thinks that Swanson was particularly touched by the wind by taking additional additional tubes, especially for a right -handed striker. Just like Tucker against Eovaldi, the ball often dies in the right center – and it was one of Swanson’s favorite places to drive the baseball bullets before coming to Chicago.
“He was really gifted in Atlanta,” said Kelly. “There is a stream jet that works well for that. He doesn’t have that here.”
“I do not remember the last time I reached a double for the center right,” said Swanson. “It has certainly caused its just part of frustration.”
Of course, the wind plays in the same way for the opponent as for Cubs strikers, so in a sense, it evokes one day given – but the difference for opposing strikers is that they are at Wrigley Field for three games, not 81. However, Swanson takes a little comfort knowing that he is not the only one to feel the frustration of a well -cut ball that translates into the place of an additional base.
“(Juan) Soto and (Giancarlo) Stanton struck fairly strong balls last season that stayed in the park,” recalls Swanson. “You could see it on their faces.
“I laugh and say to myself:” Not here, my friend. “”
So what is the goal as a striker when the wind blows? HAPP says that the trend is to try to pull the ball, using the strength of a player on this side of the field to hit the wind. It’s a mistake.
“As a striker, try to fight this and stay in the middle of the field,” he said. “The best thing you can do is stay with your approach and do not worry about it. Even more easy than to do when you are looking there in search of tubes.”
How it affects launchers
Although a weather report showing the blowing wind can ruin the day for a striker, it is always welcome for launchers who go to the mound in Wrigley.
In the 51 games, when he exploded this season, the Cubs and their opponent combined on average at only 7.4 points per game. These figures are a clear difference compared to the time when the wind does not work to the advantage of a launcher: the teams are combined on average 12.4 points per game when the wind exploded, and just under 10 points when it was considered a backwater.
“It could be your best friend or the worst nightmare,” said the left of the cardinals of St. Louis, Matthew Liberatore. “I remember a bullet that Patrick Wisdom struck (in 2024) which was 110 MPH at 35 degrees (launch angle). Everyone dropped their heads and thought it was gone. It was a routine pop fly to the left field. The next time I was there, the balls were flying everywhere.”
For the better or for the worst – depending on the day – the Cubs employ several ball launchers, including Shota Imanaga. Seventeen of the 31 circuits he authorized this season came to his house.
“My job is to have them hit the flies of flies that die on the warning track,” said Imanaga via the interpreter of the team.
Righty Andrew Kittredge, which was acquired on the deadline for trade this year, quickly learned how this work can be unpredictable to Wrigley Field by being surrounded by its teammates in the Liberate Enclos.
“Someone in the enclosure of LEVERS generally comments on this subject during the first round,” he said. “I try not to pay too much attention to it. I cannot let it dictate how I launch a striker.”
The sensors have an even more mixed feeling working at Wrigley Field because they would love to see Wrigley’s flags explode when they strike, but also know the additional challenges that these days bring the launchers with which they work behind the plate.
“I look at it with each round,” said Cubs Carson Kelly. “More defensively because if there is a ball of fly somewhere where the wind blows, it could come back to you at a given moment.
“It’s all-hand on the bridge when a ball goes up in the air.”
What it means for the free agency
Whenever the final of the 2025 Cubs season arrives, Chicago will be immediately under the spotlight with Tucker likely to be one of the best -paid free agents of this winter, whether this contract comes from the cubs or another pretender.
The high -level free agency arrives at a time when the striking environment at Wrigley Field seems more than ever among the agents.
After Cody Bellinger struck 26 circuits for the Cubs in 2023, he signed an agreement of $ 60 million over three years with opt-out, thinking that the even better offensive days were in advance. But it was roughly the time when the conditions began to move against the strikers, and Bellinger only reached 18 circuits in 2024 before being exchanged in the Yankees in winter.
Kelly thinks that the wind change in 2024 had an impact on Bellinger as much as anyone.
“I love him and it is one of my favorite players that I never trained, it was Belli,” said Kelly. “The way his swing plays. He does not hit the 112 or 113 MPH bullets. It is a contact with a contact, but with the wind that blows from the right, it reduces this ball which is affected to 102 MPH at 28 degrees. It is a circuit in many places.”
In fact, Bellinger hit 18 circuits in 80 home games with the Yankees this season and 11 others on the road.
Bellinger is represented by Scott Boras, who is also the agent of the third goal player of the Red Sox Alex Bregman. When the Cubs recruited Bregman to play for them during the free agency, they had one thing that worked against them compared to the team he finally chose: Wrigley Field against Fenway Park.
Bregman wanted more dollars guaranteed to sign with CUBS – at least five years – but was willing to conclude a shorter agreement in Boston, with opt -outs, because he has a better -hitting environment, according to sources familiar with the situation. Bregman has compiled an OPS of 0.821 this season, his highest since 2019, and seems likely to withdraw from his $ 120 million contract over three years.
“I don’t think it’s strikers, but guys are more aware of it now,” Kelly said. “The agents are aware of this.”
Perhaps no player in Chicago is no longer aware of how the Wrigley Wind can affect a player and change with the time that Happ, a switch that has been with the team since 2017. After having signed a three-year contract to stay with Cubs in 2023, HAP will be in free agency again after next season. Happ was asked how Wrigley’s conditions could have an impact on a player who is heading for the free market, as Tucker will be in November.
“Expected (statistics) help tell another story in a free agency, but that does not take into account what you know The wind blows, “said Happ.” Mentally, it’s difficult. “”
